Texas A&M Researchers Explore Light And Ultrasound Therapy For Melanoma Treatment
Source: Texas A&W Today, October 2024
Texas A&M University researchers are collaborating on a new project that studies how ultrasound and light can treat melanomas in pigs.
Recent medical advancements have made it possible to use light to shrink and kill cancer cells in what is called photodynamic therapy, but some types of cancer, like melanomas, don’t respond well to this new treatment.
“In photodynamic therapy, we introduce a chemical that is absorbed by skin cancer cells. The chemical only reacts when exposed to a certain kind of light, which causes new molecules to form that destroy the cancer cells,” said Dr. Vanderlei Bagnato, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.