More than 16,000 people in the U.S. died of bladder cancer in 2016. In a new study published in the journal Bladder Cancer, University of Colorado researchers describe a potential new method for treating the disease using gold nanoparticles and near-infrared lasers.
Here’s how it works: In superficial bladder cancer, the tumor cells are covered in something called EGFR. To target infected cells, doctors develop an antibody that binds to EGFR and attach their cancer fighters to it – a method already used to deliver chemotherapy drugs. The antibody is then injected into the bladder using a catheter.
In this case, instead of attaching chemotherapy drugs, the researchers injected antibodies armed with gold nanoparticles created by University of Colorado Boulder electrical engineering researcher Wounjhang Park. Then, they aimed a near-infrared laser light at the bladder. The laser, while safe for the patient, causes the gold nanoparticles to heat up and destroy the cancer cells to which they’re attached.
While this new ablation technique had been previously demonstrated, the most recent study took the next step toward human trials by testing it in mice. The mice were infected with bioluminescent cancer cells, allowing the researchers to measure the size of the tumor by its glow. The mice were then treated with either a laser alone, or with the laser and nanoparticles.
At the end of the six-week treatment, the researchers reported that the mice treated with lasers and gold nanoparticles had fewer cancer cells left in the bladder. They also said that the technique allowed the treatment to be highly targeted, limiting the damage to nearby healthy cells.
If further human testing is successful, the researchers hope their new technique could be used to target and destroy any cancer cells left behind after chemotherapy.
The study, titled “The Antineoplastic Activity of Photothermal Ablative Therapy with Targeted Gold Nanorods in an Orthotopic Urinary Bladder Cancer Model,” was supported by the National Cancer Institute.