LED light blasts cancer cells and spares healthy ones

A new cancer treatment combines LED light and tiny tin flakes to neutralize cancer cells while shielding healthy cells and avoiding the painful side effects associated with chemotherapy and other treatments.

The discovery is a collaboration between The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Porto in Portugal through the UT Austin Portugal Program. It could enable widespread use of an emerging light-based treatment that currently faces several hurdles, including high material costs, the need for specialized facilities, and lasers that can damage healthy tissue. The new research could knock down these barriers through the use of LED technology, instead of lasers, and a cancer-targeting material the researchers call “SnOx nanoflakes.” “Sn” represents the symbol for tin on the periodic table.

“Our goal was to create a treatment that is not only effective but also safe and accessible,” said Jean Anne Incorvia, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and one of the leaders on the project. “With the combination of LED light and SnOx nanoflakes, we’ve developed a method to precisely target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.”

In a recent study in ACS Nano, the treatment achieved remarkable effectiveness in neutralizing colorectal cancer cells and skin cancer cells. In just 30 minutes of exposure, the treatment killed up to 92% of skin cancer cells and 50% of colorectal cancer cells. It did so without harmful effects on healthy human skin cells, demonstrating the safety and selectivity of this approach.

Cancer is the second-leading cause of death around the world, and treatment for it remains challenging. Researchers worldwide are investigating alternative options, and one of the most promising is near-infrared photothermal therapy. This treatment, the backbone of the new UT-Portugal research, uses light to selectively heat cancer cells to the point where they die as an alternative to invasive surgery or harmful chemotherapy drugs.

Having proved the effectiveness of the technology, the researchers have two main goals going forward. They plan to learn more about the light and heat reaction and explore other possible catalyst materials. And they will develop devices to bring the technology to clinicians and patients.

“Our ultimate goal is to make this technology available to patients everywhere, especially places where access to specialized equipment is limited, with fewer side effects and lower cost,” said Artur Pinto, a researcher at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and lead researcher of the project in Portugal. “For skin cancers in particular, we envision that one day, treatment could move from the hospital to the patient’s home. A portable device could be placed on the skin after surgery to irradiate and destroy any remaining cancer cells, reducing the risk of recurrence.”

Incorvia and Pinto were matched through the UT Austin Portugal Program in 2021. They have since made several breakthroughs, trading visits back and forth between Austin and Portugal and combining their expertise to use two-dimensional materials for cancer treatment.

This year, the team received additional funding through the UT Austin Portugal Program to develop an implant for breast cancer patients based on their findings.

Other co-authors of the article are: Ph.D. student Hui-Ping Chang (led development of the nanoflakes) and undergraduate student Eva Nance of The University of Texas at Austin; Filipa A.L.S. Silva (performed biological characterization), Susana G. Santos (supervised the work) and professor Fernão Magalhães (contributed to securing funding) of Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto; and José R. Fernandes of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, who developed the LED systems.

The UT Austin Portugal Program is a long-standing science and technology partnership between UT and the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology (FCT). Portugal has similar partnerships with two other U.S. universities — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University — and its 17-year collaboration with UT was recently renewed for another five years.

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