By Cyrus Farivar
04.02.07 | 5:00 AMImagine you could treat cancer by taking a pill, then directing a laser light toward the location of the tumor. The growth would dissolve with no chemotherapy, and no harm to healthy tissue.
It might sound futuristic, but a select number of cancer patients already benefit from the method, called photodynamic therapy. An upgrade for the procedure could save thousands more cancer patients from the horrors of chemotherapy.
“It’s an approach that I really like,” said Karen Brewer, a professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech and lead author of the research on Tuesday at the American Chemical Society annual conference in Chicago. “We stand to make a really major improvement, instead of trying to treat one new kind of tumor or make the patient a little less sick.”
