A new experimental cancer treatment may be hitting the market in the near future. It mixes the body’s ability for immune cells to target cancer cells with the cancer cell’s inability to withstand high doses of laser energy. Scientists have been experimenting with ways to make the therapy more effective by injecting a photosensitizing antibody first that only adheres to the surface of cancer cells and tumors. This then produces a deadly form of oxygen when activated with laser light that only destroys the cancer cells. Right now, the therapy is guided more toward head and neck cancers.
Key Takeaways:
- Developed by Dr. Kerstin Stenson, MD, photoimmunotherapy (PIT) is a technique combining the immune system’s ability to target cancer cells precisely with laser energy’s abilities to destroy cancer cells.
- “This treatment is so unique and promising because its cancer cell-killing power is so selective and immediate,” said Stenson, director of Rush University Medical Center’s Head and Neck Cancer Program, as reported by News Medical Life Sciences.
- PIT is said to satisfy a basic challenge in beating cancer: Balancing the ability to kill cancer cells while limiting the collateral damage to surrounding tissue.
“PIT is said to satisfy a basic challenge in beating cancer: Balancing the ability to kill cancer cells while limiting the collateral damage to surrounding tissue.”
http://www.naturalnews.com/056158_photoimmunotherapy_cancer_treatment_natural_therapy.html