An international team of scientists has made significant progress in researching the use of cold physical plasma for the treatment of cancer.
The potential use of cold physical plasma for cancer treatment is a highly topical international research topic. Laboratory experiments have now shown on numerous occasions that plasma treatment can kill cancer cells, for example by initiating programmed cell death.
A number of questions still need to be clarified before this promising approach can be translated into a realistic therapy option. An international team of scientists from ZIK plasmatis at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Greifswald University Hospital and the University of Antwerp has now succeeded in gaining essential insights into the application of cold plasma for cancer treatment.
Using a three-dimensional tumour cell culture, the team was able to show that plasma treatment leads to a desired reduction in cell activity and cell vitality, but does not affect or even reduce cell motility, i.e. the ability of cells to move. At the same time, the team did not observe any detachment of cancer cells from the cell cluster caused by plasma treatment. This means that plasma treatment of cancer cells does not cause faster growth or the undesirable migration of cells through the body and therefore there are no indications of possible metastasis formation. As a result of the plasma treatment, adhesion markers that play an important role in metastasis were downregulated.
These preclinical study results represent an important step forward on the path to future plasma application in cancer therapy, where it is essential to rule out an increased risk of unintended tumour metastasis. These results must, of course, be verified by further preclinical studies.
About the institute: The Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP) is one of the world's leading centres for plasma medicine. Physicists, biochemists, biologists, physicians and pharmacists work together under one roof to investigate the interactions between physical plasmas and cells. This interdisciplinary basic research, supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, has led to the development of plasma applications that are significant for the healthcare of the future. For example, the PlasmaJet kINPen® MED, launched in 2013 by neoplas tools GmbH, a spin-off of the institute, is successfully used in numerous clinics to treat chronic wounds, which affect millions of people in Germany.
