Cancer treatment has come a long way, but many of today's therapies still come with steep costs: not just financial, but physical and emotional too. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy remain vital tools, yet they often damage healthy cells alongside cancerous ones, leaving patients exhausted and vulnerable to long-term side effects.
Author
- Justin Stebbing
Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University
Around the world, researchers are searching for treatments that are both effective and gentle, able to target tumours precisely while sparing the rest of the body.
Now, US researchers have introduced a promising new light-based treatment that could transform the way cancer is treated. Their discovery combines near-infrared LED light with nanoscopic flakes of tin oxide, known as SnOx nanoflakes , to kill cancer cells while leaving healthy ones unharmed.
This marks an important advance in photothermal therapy , a technique that uses light to heat and destroy tumours. In this case, the process relies on inexpensive, accessible LED systems rather than specialised lasers. The approach reduces damage to surrounding tissues and could one day offer a safer and less invasive alternative to chemotherapy or radiotherapy .
At the core of the innovation is a simple concept: using light to create localised heat that targets and kills cancer cells. The team designed the SnOx nanoflakes to absorb near-infrared light efficiently, a wavelength that can safely penetrate biological tissue.
When illuminated, these nanoflakes act like microscopic heaters, producing enough warmth to disrupt cancer cell membranes and proteins, ultimately causing cell death. Healthy tissues remain largely unaffected because they are less sensitive to heat and because the nanoflakes can be directed specifically toward malignant cells.
This targeted heating process , known as photothermal therapy , relies on a physical rather than chemical mechanism. This means it can avoid many of the systemic side effects typically seen with chemotherapy.
Traditional photothermal systems use lasers because they can focus light precisely deep within tissue. However, that same intensity can also damage healthy cells, requires costly equipment, and limits use to highly specialised facilities.
In this study, the researchers replaced lasers with light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which emit a gentler, broader spectrum of light. LEDs produce more uniform heating and are far less likely to burn or harm healthy tissue. They are also inexpensive and portable, making them well suited for clinical or even at-home use.
In laboratory studies , the LED light combined with SnOx nanoflakes destroyed up to 92% of skin cancer cells and 50% of colorectal cancer cells within 30 minutes. Healthy human skin cells were unaffected. This level of selectivity makes the technique particularly promising for cancers such as melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, which can be treated directly through light exposure. Such precision is rare among photothermal technologies, which often risk harming surrounding tissue.
The underlying science is equally significant. Tin oxide is a stable, biocompatible material already used in electronics. By converting tin disulfide (SnS₂) into oxygenated tin oxide nanoflakes, the researchers created structures that absorb near-infrared light much more effectively.
This transformation improves photothermal performance and allows the nanoflakes to be made using water-based, non-toxic synthesis methods. The process avoids harmful solvents and expensive manufacturing steps, making it scalable, sustainable and suitable for medical applications.
The team envisions compact LED devices that could be applied directly to the skin after surgical tumour removal to destroy any remaining malignant cells and reduce the risk of recurrence.
For example, after removing a melanoma or basal cell carcinoma, a patch-like LED device could deliver focused light to activate the nanoflakes at the surgical site. This type of portable, home-based treatment could make post-surgical cancer care safer, more convenient and less dependent on hospital visits.
The innovation also opens the door to combination therapies. Photothermal treatment can make cancer cells more vulnerable to other forms of therapy, such as immunotherapy or targeted drugs .
Heat generated by light can weaken tumour cells, make their membranes more permeable and trigger immune responses that help the body identify and destroy cancer. Integrating LED-based photothermal therapy with other approaches could make treatment plans more precise, effective and less toxic.
Although still in the early stages, the researchers are refining the technology and exploring new applications. They are studying how different wavelengths and exposure times affect outcomes and investigating whether other materials similar to tin oxide could reach deeper tissues, such as those affected by breast or colorectal cancers.
Another area of development is implantable nanoflake systems: tiny biocompatible devices that could provide ongoing photothermal control inside the body.
The potential for accessibility is one of the most exciting aspects of this work. Because LED-based devices are inexpensive to manufacture and simple to operate, they could be used in low-resource regions where access to cancer care is limited.
This could democratise advanced treatment by extending it beyond major hospitals. For superficial cancers detected early, LED therapy might even be incorporated into outpatient or cosmetic procedures, reducing recovery time and improving quality of life.
Safety is another major advantage. Chemotherapy damages rapidly dividing healthy cells across the body, and radiotherapy can harm normal tissue and cause fatigue or scarring. Photothermal therapy, by contrast, confines its effects to the illuminated site. It produces no systemic toxicity, no cumulative organ damage and minimal discomfort.
This high precision stems from both the optical targeting and the biological selectivity of the nanoflakes, which preferentially heat cancer cells due to their altered metabolism and greater sensitivity to thermal stress.
The next step is to translate these laboratory findings into preclinical and, eventually, human trials. While much work remains, LED-driven photothermal therapy could represent a shift in how we treat cancer, making therapies more precise, affordable and humane.
Light, one of nature's simplest energies, could become a powerful medical tool for selectively destroying tumours without harming healthy tissue. With innovations such as SnOx nanoflakes, the vision of non-invasive, localised, patient-friendly cancer treatment is coming steadily closer to reality.
Justin Stebbing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
