Researcher fighting breast cancer with light therapy

When the treatment is effective for a patient who fights cancer, the light at the end of the tunnel is easier to see.

However, with metastatic breast cancer, the prognosis can be a little discouraging with poor results for the patients.

That's why Nalinikanth Kotagiri, MD, Ph.D., assistant professor at the James L. Winkle School of Pharmacy and recruiter of a cluster for the Cincinnati Cancer Center, hopes to explore ways by which ultraviolet light can activate photosensitive drugs. Invasive breast cancer and provide that light at the end of the tunnel suck patients.

"Metastatic breast cancer can be a devastating diagnosis with high rates of relapse and death, and there is currently no effective treatment," he said. "Despite new treatments, many patients still succumb to the disease.The main limitations include acquired resistance to treatment and serious side effects of treatment.Because of the widespread localization of breast cancer cells, especially in the bone marrow , which also houses tumor cells.As vital stem cells, the risk of toxicity is even higher with conventional therapies.Therefore, new therapeutic strategies selectively destroying tumor cells, increasing the effectiveness of treatment, preventing relapses and reducing side effects by sparing healthy stem cells are needed. "

Kotagiri has been awarded the Breast Cancer Discovery Award by the Department of Defense, endowed with more than US $ 600,000 for three years, for this purpose. Her project will focus on light therapies, which could activate light-sensitive drugs to target only cancer cells.

"Therapies such as photodynamic therapy (PDT), involving light and a photosensitizing chemical, used in conjunction with molecular oxygen can cause cell death, provide a high degree of control that is effectively used to treat cancer at early and advanced stages, "he says. "It works on a simple premise that a photosensitive drug, otherwise nontoxic, introduced into certain tissues can cause cell death when it is activated by light.Despite the promise of TPD, it can not penetrate In addition, the current light-sensitive drugs need oxygen to be effective, but many tumors, including breast tumors, have pockets. lack of oxygen or develop in areas where oxygen is low or absent, which could prevent the effective application of TDP in the treatment of cancer. "

However, Kotagiri said recent work in the lab has led his team to adopt a "two-pronged approach" to solving these problems.

"We have used ultraviolet (UV) light of radionuclides (nuclide or radioactive atom), which are already used to image tumors and tissues, and have attempted to solve the problem of oxygen dependence by using metal-based light-sensitive drugs for the detection of depth and oxygen – independent PDT, "he says. "By replacing the external light source, such as lasers and lamps, with radionuclide light as an" internal "light source, we were able to better control the therapy in the body.

"This could mean more effective therapies with minimal toxicity to vital organs and tissues." Since radionuclides are used for imaging and localization of tumors, we can now simultaneously visualize and treat breast cancer metastasis using the same radionuclide. "

Researchers at the Kotagiri Laboratory will test, using animal models, whether light-sensitive drugs, activated by radionuclide light, will destroy metastatic cancer cells, including those that resist traditional therapies .

"Since the way we kill cells does not depend on a certain molecular pathway, the technology could be applicable to the treatment of a wide variety of breast cancers," he adds. "This could be a common image-guided treatment strategy for treating patients in the early and advanced stages of the disease.Because of the safety of this treatment strategy, it could be used effectively with d & # 3920; other treatments, such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, without the risk of additional side effects.

"This could be extremely beneficial for patients, as it could potentially improve therapeutic outcomes, in addition to setting a precedent for adapting other FDA-approved light-sensitive drugs as radionuclide-activated therapies, thus broadening the range and range of diseases currently treated by these drugs.Benefit, this treatment could be ready for a patient population in 5 to 10 years, since all the materials involved have already been used in humans – it could be an exciting breakthrough. "

Explore further:
New Markey study looks promising for targeting breast cancer metastasis