were for the UHN photothermal ablation technology (below) that we supplanted.
EnriqueSuave ... You're right about heat versus cold lasers.
And that's why TLT's molecule was seen more promising than that photothermal ablation technology below. What was Dr. Yasafuku priority in 2017 was then shifted toward our TLD-1433 technology.
Feb. 2017 -
Dr Kazuhiro Yasufuku – Getting Really, Really Small to Treat Lung Cancer Thoracic surgeon and research scientist Dr Kazuhiro Yasufuku and his colleagues at the University of Toronto in Canada aim to use the latest in nanoparticle and high technology to treat lung cancer without major surgery.
Photothermal ablation
The use of nanoparticles, particularly porphysomes and ICG lyposome, is a quantum leap in our ability to fight lung cancer.
because of the complex molecular structure of porphyrins, they can be used for a variety of purposes, including even carrying a metal ion attached to the porphyrin molecule by chelation. So a combination of porphyrin molecules of varying design with phospholipids – essentially tucking a specially designed porphyrin into a liposome – gives cancer researchers the ability to do wonderful things on a molecular scale. Porphysomes can be designed to accumulate into tumours and to emit bright fluorescence and near-infrared (laser) light to preferentially heat the tumour tissue. Porphysomes can be built containing metal molecules to allow for intraoperative localisation of early-stage lung cancer during minimally invasive surgery. Properly designed porphysomes could allow ultra-minimally invasive photothermal therapy of lung cancer in patients that are not surgical candidates. Porphysomes light up the tumour so the surgeon can snake a laser down a bronchoscope and zap it without making an incision at all. The possibilities are endless for Dr Yasufuku and his team.
Perhaps even more exciting, Dr Yasufuku wants to skip the surgery altogether and work on an ‘ultra-minimally invasive’ treatment for lung cancer, even less invasive than his band aid surgery. He wants to use infrared light delivered to the target tumour though a bronchoscope to destroy the malignant tissue by local heating, i.e. photothermal therapy. Specially designed porphysomes will be used to localise the target tumour by fluorescence imaging and to enhance the local absorption of the laser light, something porphyrins are good at. The project also includes perfecting the technique in preclinical animal models and then moving into human clinical trials, since it is something that has never been done in humans. The first-in-human trials will be performed in the Guided Therapeutic Operating Room (GTx OR) built in the Toronto General Hospital. The project team in Toronto already has all the expertise: Dr Yasufuku knows how to wield a bronchoscope, his colleague Dr Brian Wilson is an expert in fluorescence endoscopy, Dr Robert Weersink can work the X-ray machines, Dr Zheng wrote the book on the nanoparticles and Drs Wilson and Weersink are all about photothermal laser ablation. This team has been working together for years now and nobody else is more prepared to take this giant leap into the world of nanoparticles and minimalist surgery to defeat a major killer, lung cancer.