Chemotherapy with light; only one injection required
eurekalert.org
eurekalert.org
I've received PUVA therapy to treat chronic Graft Versus Host Disease. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PUVA_therapy
The psoralen drugs kinda sucked. And I always developed an intolerance to the light. Skin would burn before receiving therapeutic amounts of light, so not worth doing.
Much later, I had much better luck with UVB therapy. I have no idea why it worked better for me.
I don't understand much about biology (square peg, round hole). But light therapy always seems like magic to me. Explanations for why and how it works is huge progress. There seems to be huge potential.
I also anticipate using UV light for diagnosis. Last time I mentioned it (here on HN) I got some great links. But none of those advances have made it to my current care providers (SCCA, FHCRC). Soon.
But also a really fascinating technology! I wasn’t aware of photosensitizing, what a novel way of inside and outside used in conjunction
If there is a way to highlight cancer, then it could burn out all the bright spots
But, you're right, probably 20 years ago I saw photos of a device for converging proton beams on brain cancer. It just doesn't work very well using anything weaker than X-rays for anything very deep.
Overall, it's always nice to have a new way of telling cancerous and healthy cells apart. That's all what cancer research is about in a way. The photosensitizers may also respond to shorter wave length radiation or (modified) to other ways to activate the cytotoxic potential, e.g. conventional chemotherapy.
The other product was a nasal decolonization tool. It looked like two foam earplugs connected to wires. The person would stick them in their nose and the light would decolonize the nose (and nares) prior to surgery. There's research to show that nasal decolonization reduces surgical site infections.
However, I would say that Trump was not referring to technologies like this. I think it was just a coincidence that he happened upon UV light in the body.