The psoralen drugs kinda sucked. And I always developed an intolerance to the light. Skin would burn before receiving therapeutic amounts of light, so not worth doing.
Much later, I had much better luck with UVB therapy. I have no idea why it worked better for me.
I don't understand much about biology (square peg, round hole). But light therapy always seems like magic to me. Explanations for why and how it works is huge progress. There seems to be huge potential.
I also anticipate using UV light for diagnosis. Last time I mentioned it (here on HN) I got some great links. But none of those advances have made it to my current care providers (SCCA, FHCRC). Soon.
So I'm assuming this is only applicable for tumors which are on the skin or just below the skin? Or can they somehow selectively blast light through various layers of tissue without damaging anything?
Photons, electors, and protons all have exponential drop-offs in energy as they pass through the body. (Obviously much flatter for protons or x-rays than for visible light.) If you're going to go very deep, you're going to want to use at least X-rays if not electron or proton beams. Even with UV, it's just not very efficient to lose such a high percentage of energy near the surface.
But, you're right, probably 20 years ago I saw photos of a device for converging proton beams on brain cancer. It just doesn't work very well using anything weaker than X-rays for anything very deep.
Overall, it's always nice to have a new way of telling cancerous and healthy cells apart. That's all what cancer research is about in a way. The photosensitizers may also respond to shorter wave length radiation or (modified) to other ways to activate the cytotoxic potential, e.g. conventional chemotherapy.
I’ve been reading about advancements in experimental cancer therapeutics for decades. Everyone I’ve ever know who’ve gotten cancer always gets the same: chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Can anyone vouch a for a single meaningful advance in cancer treatment that’s become mainstream in the last 20 years?
Ehm...no that's not how these things work. This was used in a mouse model and there has been no randomized controlled trial in humans. We literally don't know if it works at all, let alone being better than current treatments. It will be many years before this would be available, if at all.
I work in healthcare, infection prevention specifically. I get pitched products all the time, UV light was all the rage for a bit. Two products come to mind. One was a light that shines on wounds which kills the bacteria which decolonizes the skin. The lamp itself was different, but it was just mounted on an articulating arm like a desk lamp at home.
The other product was a nasal decolonization tool. It looked like two foam earplugs connected to wires. The person would stick them in their nose and the light would decolonize the nose (and nares) prior to surgery. There's research to show that nasal decolonization reduces surgical site infections.
However, I would say that Trump was not referring to technologies like this. I think it was just a coincidence that he happened upon UV light in the body.
I reviewed the video Trump talking about UV. He wasn't referring to anything specific. He was just throwing out ideas. On a high-level, these ideas do make sense. However, Trump is a character, so whatever he's saying isn't taken seriously. A lot of his speeches indeed sound fun.
I've received PUVA therapy to treat chronic Graft Versus Host Disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PUVA_therapy
The psoralen drugs kinda sucked. And I always developed an intolerance to the light. Skin would burn before receiving therapeutic amounts of light, so not worth doing.
Much later, I had much better luck with UVB therapy. I have no idea why it worked better for me.
I don't understand much about biology (square peg, round hole). But light therapy always seems like magic to me. Explanations for why and how it works is huge progress. There seems to be huge potential.
I also anticipate using UV light for diagnosis. Last time I mentioned it (here on HN) I got some great links. But none of those advances have made it to my current care providers (SCCA, FHCRC). Soon.