Combined Laser and Nanotube Therapy Destroys Kidney Tumors

A novel cancer treatment has been described that is based on carbon nanotubes that heat up when exposed to laser light and then destroy tumors into which they have been injected.

Investigators from Wake Forest University (Winston Salem, NC, USA) evaluated several protocols that involved injection of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) directly into kidney tumors in a population of laboratory mice. After injection of the nanotubes, the area of the tumors was subjected to various levels of laser light for different periods.

Data published in the July 20, 2009, online edition of the journal Proceedings of the [U.S.] National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) revealed that injection of 100 micrograms of MWCNT followed by illumination for 30 seconds with a low power (three-watt) laser resulted in complete ablation of tumors and a more than nine month period of lasting remission in 80% of the mice. In contrast, mice that received no treatment, mice that received nanotubes with no laser treatment, and mice that received laser treatment without nanotubes died about 30 days into the study. The treatment caused minimal local toxicity with no evidence of systemic toxicity.

"You can actually watch the tumors shrinking until, one day, they are gone,” said senior author Dr. Suzy Torti, professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest University. "Not only did the mice survive, but they maintained their weight, did not have any noticeable behavioral abnormalities and experienced no obvious problems with internal tissues. As far as we can tell, other than a transient burn on the skin that did not seem to affect the animals and eventually went away, there were no real downsides--that is very encouraging. When dealing with cancer, survival is the endpoint that you are searching for. It is great if you can get the tumor to shrink, but the gold standard is to make the tumor shrink or disappear and not come back. It appears that we have found a way to do that.”

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