Cancer treatment uses LED light and 'atomically thin' materials to destroy cells

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A ray of light may be key to fighting cancer. Researchers with the University of Texas and University of Porto in Portugal have revealed a new tool in the healthcare battle: LEDs and super tiny metal. The treatment could see the need for chemotherapy end.

"One of the things that we can leverage against cancer is the fact that cancer cells grow very quickly, and therefore they're very leaky," said Jean Anne Incorvia, an associate professor in electrical and computer engineering at UT Austin in the Cockrell School of Engineering.

Those leaky cells are key to a new technique: using atomically thin sheets, called 2D material, breaking them down so cancer cells can absorb them, then using near infrared light produced by LEDs to heat the cancer cells up until they burst.

Incorvia said she first learned how 2D materials could be used in medicine at a conference several years ago.

"The bulk of my research is in electronics, so I apply these 2D materials to computing applications," she said.

Partnering with University of Porto, her team developed the materials while the cancer research was done overseas. Their work was published this fall in ACS Nano.

Exploding cancer cells

Using the compound Tin Oxide (SnOx), the UT team broke down the materials to point where cells could absorb them. Placed under LED emitting near infrared light, the materials would heat the surrounding cells.

Cancer cells would pop. Healthy cells did not.

The researchers worked on two types of cancer cells, skin cancer and colorectal cancer. "It was able to not kill the healthy cells and kill the cancer cells very effectively," Incorvia said.

It takes less than an hour for this to occur. Because the cells must reach a certain level of heat before they rupture, some treatments could take longer. The cancer cells breakdown once they pop and are then flushed out of the body.

During the research, in just 30 minutes of exposure, 92% of skin cancer cells and 50% of colorectal cancer cells were destroyed.

LEDs, cancer and hope for the future

The goal of the technology is to reduce the pain of cancer treatments like chemotherapy. Incorvia said that the LED machines could, hopefully, be used at home.

Similar techniques have been used before, but those required lasers that can damage surrounding cells.

All the research has been done on cell samples thus far. The researchers next hope to work on live specimens. They hope to eventually move onto breast cancer.

Incorvia said they might use LED implants for those treatments. They also hope to explore other 2D materials.

“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 in a statement.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world. According to the National Cancer Institute, 2,041,910 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year.