Discover how light therapy may support breast cancer treatment, reduce inflammation, and enhance recovery. A safe, non-invasive approach to wellness.
"Metastatic breast cancer can be devastating, with high rates of relapse and death, and effective therapies remain limited,"
Nalinikanth Kotagiri, MD, PhD, says.
"Despite newer treatments, many patients still succumb to the disease. Major limitations include acquired resistance and serious side effects. Because breast cancer cells often lodge in the bone marrow—home to vital stem cells—conventional therapies carry an even higher risk of toxicity. New strategies that selectively destroy tumor cells, improve efficacy, prevent relapse, and spare healthy stem cells are urgently needed."
Nalinikanth Kotagiri, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy and a Cincinnati Cancer Center cluster hire, is exploring whether ultraviolet light can activate light-sensitive drugs to treat invasive breast cancer and offer patients the light at the end of the tunnel they seek.
Kotagiri has received the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Breakthrough Award—more than $600,000 over three years—to pursue this goal. His project focuses on light-mediated therapies that may activate light-sensitive agents only within cancerous cells.
"Photodynamic therapy (PDT), which combines light with a photosensitizing chemical and molecular oxygen to trigger cell death, provides a high degree of control and is already used to manage cancers at various stages," he notes. "A light-sensitive drug that is otherwise non-toxic can be introduced into tissue and, once illuminated, causes cell death. Yet PDT cannot penetrate deeply, and many breast tumors contain hypoxic pockets where oxygen levels are too low for standard PDT to work."
Recent lab work has led Kotagiri’s team to a two-pronged approach.
"We use ultraviolet light emitted from radionuclides—already employed to image tumors—and have replaced oxygen-dependent drugs with metal-based photosensitizers to enable depth- and oxygen-independent PDT," he explains. "By substituting external lasers or lamps with an 'internal' radionuclide light source, we gain better control inside the body."
"This strategy could enhance therapeutic efficacy while minimizing toxicity to vital organs. Because the same radionuclide can locate tumors and activate the drug, we can image and treat metastatic breast cancer simultaneously."
In animal models, Kotagiri’s lab will test whether radionuclide-activated, tumor-targeted, light-sensitive drugs can destroy metastatic cells—including those resistant to conventional therapies.
PubMed search on photodynamic therapy
"Because the way we kill the cells does not rely on a single molecular pathway, the technology might work against many types of breast cancer," he adds. "It could become a widely used image-guided option for early- and late-stage disease, and, given its apparent safety profile, it may be combined with chemotherapy or immunotherapy without adding side effects."
"If future studies confirm the benefit, this approach could reach patients within 5–10 years, since all components have already been used in humans—an encouraging prospect."
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04418856
Severe fatigue, depression, sleep disturbance, and cognitive impairment are among the most common complaints during cancer care. These problems are thought to stem from circadian-rhythm disruption caused by the disease and its treatment. Bright white light (BWL) can reset daily rhythms, yet data in oncology remain limited. This randomized controlled trial is testing whether scheduled morning exposure to UV-filtered BWL (or dim white light as control), delivered through special glasses for 30 min per day, lessens fatigue, mood, sleep, and cognitive symptoms in breast-cancer patients receiving surgery or chemotherapy.
