Laser immunotherapy for treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer and melanoma

Laser immunotherapy (LIT) was developed for the treatment of metastatic tumors. It combines local selective photothermal interaction and active immunological stimulation to induce a long-term, systemic anti-tumor immunity. During the past sixteen years, LIT has been advanced from bench-top to bedside, with promising outcomes. In our pre-clinical and preliminary clinical studies, LIT has demonstrated the capability in inducing immunological responses, which not only can eradicate the treated primary tumors, but also can eliminate untreated metastases at distant sites. Specifically, LIT has been used to treat advanced melanoma and breast cancer patients during the past five years. LIT was shown to be effective in controlling both primary tumors and distant metastases in late-stage patients, who have failed conventional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, and other more advanced approaches. The methodology and the development of LIT are presented in this paper. The patients’ responses to LIT are also reported in this paper. The preliminary results obtained in these studies indicated that LIT could be an effective modality for the treatment of patients with late-stage, metastatic cancers, who are facing severely limited options.