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."

"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 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.

Image source: University of Texas at Austin.