[HN Gopher] Chemotherapy with light; only one injection required
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Chemotherapy with light; only one injection required
Author : voisin
Score : 88 points
Date : 2021-01-23 11:54 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.eurekalert.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.eurekalert.org)
| chovybizzass wrote:
| so trump was on to something....i don't believe it.
| nickpp wrote:
| We had no idea: https://www.bioworld.com/articles/434719-uv-
| light-respirator...
| giarc wrote:
| I work in healthcare, infection prevention specifically. I
| get pitched products all the time, UV light was all the rage
| for a bit. Two products come to mind. One was a light that
| shines on wounds which kills the bacteria which decolonizes
| the skin. The lamp itself was different, but it was just
| mounted on an articulating arm like a desk lamp at home.
|
| The other product was a nasal decolonization tool. It looked
| like two foam earplugs connected to wires. The person would
| stick them in their nose and the light would decolonize the
| nose (and nares) prior to surgery. There's research to show
| that nasal decolonization reduces surgical site infections.
|
| However, I would say that Trump was not referring to
| technologies like this. I think it was just a coincidence
| that he happened upon UV light in the body.
| andreygrehov wrote:
| I reviewed the video Trump talking about UV. He wasn't
| referring to anything specific. He was just throwing out
| ideas. On a high-level, these ideas do make sense. However,
| Trump is a character, so whatever he's saying isn't taken
| seriously. A lot of his speeches indeed sound fun.
| asldhfjp3rkjmsd wrote:
| Someone, quick! Flag this post!
| elric wrote:
| So I'm assuming this is only applicable for tumors which are on
| the skin or just below the skin? Or can they somehow selectively
| blast light through various layers of tissue without damaging
| anything?
| refurb wrote:
| I would say it's use is limited against solid tumors where the
| light won't penetrate beyond a few layers of cells.
| tyingq wrote:
| A bit of googling suggests they use laparotomy and optical
| fibers and/or scopes to deliver the light if PDT works well for
| certain cancers.
| treeman79 wrote:
| Aren't there ways to have several beams outside body converge
| in the body to produce heat?
|
| If there is a way to highlight cancer, then it could burn out
| all the bright spots
| KMag wrote:
| Photons, electors, and protons all have exponential drop-
| offs in energy as they pass through the body. (Obviously
| much flatter for protons or x-rays than for visible light.)
| If you're going to go very deep, you're going to want to
| use at least X-rays if not electron or proton beams. Even
| with UV, it's just not very efficient to lose such a high
| percentage of energy near the surface.
|
| But, you're right, probably 20 years ago I saw photos of a
| device for converging proton beams on brain cancer. It just
| doesn't work very well using anything weaker than X-rays
| for anything very deep.
| BurningFrog wrote:
| Read the whole article, and nothing about the light application
| was explained
| monopoledance wrote:
| More info in the /r/science thread:
| https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/l2nefj/korean_scie...
|
| Overall, it's always nice to have a new way of telling
| cancerous and healthy cells apart. That's all what cancer
| research is about in a way. The photosensitizers may also
| respond to shorter wave length radiation or (modified) to other
| ways to activate the cytotoxic potential, e.g. conventional
| chemotherapy.
| michaericalribo wrote:
| This is not injecting the light itself...! :)
|
| But also a really fascinating technology! I wasn't aware of
| photosensitizing, what a novel way of inside and outside used in
| conjunction
| la6471 wrote:
| It's really great. Hope it is soon available worldwide.
| TaupeRanger wrote:
| Ehm...no that's not how these things work. This was used in a
| mouse model and there has been no randomized controlled trial
| in humans. We literally don't know if it works at all, let
| alone being better than current treatments. It will be many
| years before this would be available, if at all.
| specialist wrote:
| From the abstract, this sounds amazing. One dose, many light
| sessions. Much more targeted toxicity.
|
| I've received PUVA therapy to treat chronic Graft Versus Host
| Disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PUVA_therapy
|
| The psoralen drugs kinda sucked. And I always developed an
| intolerance to the light. Skin would burn before receiving
| therapeutic amounts of light, so not worth doing.
|
| Much later, I had much better luck with UVB therapy. I have no
| idea why it worked better for me.
|
| I don't understand much about biology (square peg, round hole).
| But light therapy always seems like magic to me. Explanations for
| why and how it works is huge progress. There seems to be huge
| potential.
|
| I also anticipate using UV light for diagnosis. Last time I
| mentioned it (here on HN) I got some great links. But none of
| those advances have made it to my current care providers (SCCA,
| FHCRC). Soon.
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