Treating skin cancer with a high-tech Band-Aid soon might be a reality that Dr. “Bones” McCoy would recommend highly.
The bandage is a new type of sticking plaster embedded with organic light-emitting diodes that work together with light-sensitive drugs to destroy tumors.
The new plasters might even allow people to treat themselves in their own homes, said Stephen Clemmet, CEO of Polymertronics, the UK company developing the breakthrough treatment.
“We’re looking at developing a faster, cheaper, easier way to treat skin cancer,” Clemmet told New Scientist magazine.
Treatment that activates light-sensitive drugs now must be performed in hospitals with costly lights and lasers.
The Polymertronic company has perfected a way of printing square 4-millimeter clusters of battery-powered red organic light-emitting diodes onto a thin strip of flexible plastic. The diode pattern is made to match the patient’s tumor and target the cancerous tissue directly. The diodes activate the drugs, which soak through the skin and destroy the cancer.
Laboratory tests of the new plasters have proved successful, and human trials will begin soon. Commercial availability could come within two years.
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