Optical Dosimetry in Laser-Assisted Cancer Immunotherapy

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This work is concerned with the optical dosimetric aspect of Laser-Assisted Immunotherapy, a novel treatment modality for cancer therapy. The therapy utilizes co-administration of a light absorbing dye and an immunoadjuvant into the tumor volume prior to laser irradiation. Metastatic mammary tumor cells will be implanted in Balb/C mice. The tumor will be irradiated with a diode laser following the co-administration of an infrared absorbing dye and an immunoadjuvant. The long-term objective of this project is to determine the light dose which would invoke a strong tumor response for the total eradication of the primary tumor and distant metastases. A complete photo-thermal destruction of the tumor will be initiated with the laser irradiation, resulting in tissue necrosis. The extent of necrosis, which should determine the tumor response through antigen presentation, is a strong function of the tumor temperature. Numerical solution of the standard bioheat transfer equation in the light of a dynamic damage model will be obtained for the predicted temperature profile of the tumor. The light dose, which would induce an optimum necrosis for a sustained and vigorous immune response of the tumor, will be experimentally determined.