Copenhagen, Denmark (Scicasts) — Cancer treatments based on laser irradiation of tiny nanoparticles that are injected directly into the cancer tumour are working and can destroy the cancer from within.
Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute and the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Copenhagen have developed a method that kills cancer cells using nanoparticles and lasers. The treatment has been tested on mice and it has been demonstrated that the cancer tumours are considerably damaged. The results are published in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports.
Traditional cancer treatments like radiation and chemotherapy have major side affects, because they not only affect the cancer tumours, but also the healthy parts of the body. A large interdisciplinary research project between physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute and doctors and human biologists at the Panum Institute and Rigshospitalet has developed a new treatment that only affects cancer tumours locally, therefore, much more gentle on the body. The project is called Laser Activated Nanoparticles for Tumor Elimination (LANTERN). The head of the project is Professor Lene Oddershede, a biophysicist and head of the research group Optical Tweezers at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in collaboration with Professor Andreas Kjær, head of the Cluster for Molecular Imaging, Panum Institute.
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