Light-based cancer treatment could provide safe alternative to chemotherapy

Cancer treatment has come a long way, but many of today’s treatments still come with huge costs: not only financial, but also physical and emotional. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy remain important tools, yet they often damage cancerous cells as well as healthy cells, leaving patients exhausted and vulnerable to long-term side effects.

Around the world, researchers are searching for treatments that are both effective and gentle, able to precisely target tumors while sparing the rest of the body.

Now, US researchers have introduced a promising new light-based treatment that could change the way cancer is treated. Their discovery combines near-infrared LED light with nanoscopic flakes of tin oxide, known as Snox Nanoflakes, to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.

It marks a significant advance in photothermal therapy, a technique that uses light to heat and destroy tumors. In this case, the process relies on inexpensive, accessible LED systems rather than specialized lasers. This approach minimizes damage to surrounding tissue and may one day provide a safer and less invasive alternative to chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

At the core of the innovation is a simple concept: using light to generate local heat that targets and kills cancer cells. The team designed the SnOX nanoflakes to efficiently absorb near-infrared light, a wavelength that can safely penetrate biological tissue.

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When illuminated, these nanoflakes act like microscopic heaters, generating enough heat to disrupt cancer cell membranes and proteins, ultimately leading to cell death. Healthy tissues remain largely unaffected because they are less sensitive to heat and because the nanoflakes can be directed specifically toward malignant cells.

This targeted heating process, known as photothermal therapy, relies on physical rather than chemical mechanisms. This means it can avoid many of the systemic side effects commonly seen with chemotherapy.

Traditional photothermal systems use lasers because they can focus light deep within the tissue. However, the same intensity can also damage healthy cells, requires expensive equipment, and limits the use of highly specialized facilities.

In this study, researchers replaced lasers with light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which emit a gentle, broad spectrum of light. LEDs produce more uniform heating and are much less likely to burn or damage healthy tissue. They are also inexpensive and portable, making them suitable for clinical or even home use.

In laboratory studies, LED light combined with SnOx nanoflakes killed 92% of skin cancer cells and 50% of colorectal cancer cells within 30 minutes. Healthy human skin cells were unaffected. This level of selectivity makes this technology particularly promising for cancers such as melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, which can be treated through direct light exposure. Such precision is rare in photothermal technologies, which often carry the risk of damaging surrounding tissue.

The underlying science is equally important. Tin oxide is a stable, bio-compatible material that is already used in electronics. By converting tin disulfide (SnS₂) into oxygenated tin oxide nanoflakes, researchers created structures that more effectively absorb near-infrared light.

This transformation improves photothermal performance and allows nanoflakes to be made using water-based, non-toxic synthesis methods. The process avoids harmful solvents and expensive manufacturing steps, making it scalable, sustainable, and suitable for medical applications.

The team envisions compact LED devices that can be applied directly to the skin after surgical tumor removal to destroy any remaining malignant cells and reduce the risk of recurrence.

For example, after removal of melanoma or basal cell carcinoma, a patch-like LED device could provide focused light to activate nanoflakes at the surgical site. This type of portable, home treatment can make cancer care after surgery safer, more convenient, and less dependent on hospital visits.

The innovation also opens the door to combination therapies. Photothermal treatment may make cancer cells more sensitive to other types of therapy, such as immunotherapy or targeted drugs.

The heat generated by light can weaken tumor cells, make their membranes more permeable and trigger an immune response that helps the body identify and destroy cancer. Integrating LED-based photothermal therapy with other approaches can make treatment plans more precise, effective, and less toxic.

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Although still in the early stages, researchers are refining the technology and discovering new applications. They are studying how different wavelengths and exposure times affect the results and investigating whether other materials similar to tin oxide can reach deeper tissues, such as those affected by breast or colorectal cancer.

Another area of ​​development is implantable nanoflake systems: tiny biocompatible devices that can provide ongoing photothermal control inside the body.

The possibility of accessibility is one of the most exciting aspects of this work. Because LED-based devices are cheap to manufacture and easy to operate, they can be used in low-resource areas where access to cancer care is limited.

This could democratize advanced treatments beyond major hospitals. When superficial cancers are detected early, LED therapy can also be incorporated into outpatient or cosmetic procedures, reducing recovery time and improving quality of life.

Security is another major benefit. Chemotherapy damages rapidly dividing healthy cells throughout the body, and radiotherapy can damage normal tissues and cause fatigue or scarring. In contrast, photothermal therapy limits its effects to the illuminated area. It causes no systemic toxicity, no cumulative organ damage and minimal discomfort.

This results from both high-precision optical targeting and the biological selectivity of the nanoflakes, which preferentially target cancer cells due to their altered metabolism and greater sensitivity to thermal stress.

The next step is to translate these laboratory findings into preclinical and ultimately human trials. While much work remains, LED-powered photothermal therapy could represent a paradigm shift in the way we treat cancer, making treatments more precise, affordable, and humane.

Light, one of nature’s simplest energies, can become a powerful medical tool to selectively destroy tumors without harming healthy tissues. With innovations like Snox NanoFlex, the vision of non-invasive, localized, patient-friendly cancer treatment is steadily moving closer to reality.