|
Cancerous tumors may
have met their match with a new technology that harnesses the power of lasers
to find, map, and destroy tumors with non-invasive laser. The technology was
developed at the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma. A team
of mechanical, aerospace, and biomedical engineers developed a technology which uses a femtosecond laser. Femtosecond lasers
pulse as speeds of one-quadrillionth of a second. The high speed enables the
laser to focus in on a specific region to find and acutely map a tumor.
The
Scientist
The laser uses
ultra-short light pulses focused in a well confined region so the laser can
enter and leave the area quickly. The short pulses ensure the tumor cells are
diagnosed and attacked fast. Femtosecond lasers emit optical pulses below 1 ps,
i.e., in the domain of femtoseconds (1 fs + 10-15s). They are
categorized as ultrafast lasers or ultrashort pulse lasers. The short pules are
achieved with a technique of passive mode locking. Passive mode locking is
achieved by incorporating a saturable absorber (optical components with a certain
optical loss) with suitable properties into the laser resonator. A laser
resonator is a cavity in which the laser radiation can circulate and pass a
gain medium which compensates the optical loss.
Once the cancerous
area is targeted, the intensity of the laser's radiation is turned up and the
tumor is irradiated or burned off. The femtosecond laser avoids heating up and
therefore damaging the healthy surrounding tissue. The laser treatment can be
done as an outpatient procedure instead of an intensive surgery.
Advantages
Use of the femtosecond
laser is a great advancement for the treatment of brain tumors. The imaging
mechanism can non-invasively permeate thin layers of bone, such as the skull.
The highly targeted area avoids damaging other healthy brain tissue. It also
overcomes the limitations of photodynamic therapy that has restricted
acceptance, and surgery that may not be an option if not all carcinogenic
tissue can be removed. Photodynamic therapy is a treatment that uses a
photosensitizer drug and a particular type of light. When the photosensitizer
is exposed to a specific wavelength of light, it produces a form of oxygen that
kills nearby cells. This type of therapy has a limited depth of penetration and
therefore cannot pass through more than one-third of an inch of tissue. It is
also less effective at treating large tumors or those that have
metastasized.
The team is in the
process of bringing the technology to the market in order to treat cancer
patients in a non-invasive manner.
Resources
Space Institute Researchers Develop Laser Technology
to Fight Cancer
Encyclopedia of Laser Physics and Technology
| 
