BMP’s Gang Han, PhD, discusses Photodynamic Therapy – A Non-Toxic Way to Fight Cancer.

Using photodynamic therapy, an up and coming treatment model for certain cancers, doctors can treat certain types of cancers with non-toxic light-emitting molecules, photosensitizers, and light. Research is pushing the technology further into many forms of cancer treatments.

“You need three things for photodynamic therapy: light, a molecule as the mediator, and the oxygen in the micro-environment. The product of this reaction, a reactive singlet oxygen species compound, kills the cancer,” said Dr. Han.

Regarding shrinking tumors, Han says, “We do it with light to illuminate certain tumor regions. Only by doing so, will this avoid having systematic side effects in the body. The light illuminates only the tumor cells and kills them.”

Read more about this research in the Horiba online article.