Could Cancer Be Treated By Dentist’s Lights?
Posted on June 25, 2008 by DFHS Article Team
The blue light used by dentists to help harden fillings might one day help to treat cancer.
A student in the US made the discovery by accident when they noticed that the light stifles the growth of tumours, while doing tests on mice.
In time, the light may be able to be used as a cancer treatment, allowing patients to lower doses of chemotherapy.
Lower levels of chemotherapy will in turn, decrease the side effects most cancer patients suffer when undergoing treatments.
Dentistry Professor Jill Lewis says the light is harmless to healthy cells.
“What we found was if we tested it on tumour cells then they died, if we tested it on normal cells they didn’t. That was really exciting to us.”
Lewis says a lot more research needs to be done to determine what types of cancer it might work on.
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