Lasers! No Sharks, Though ...

A new study published in Science Translational Medicine shows that lasers could play a role in the treatment of cancer, reports New Scientist's Jessica Hamzelou. Lasers could be used to destroy lymphatic vessels that help the cancer spread itself around, therefore stopping cancer from spreading to other systems. Such photodynamic therapy treatments are already used on cancer patients to target tumors, but the University of Helsinki researchers who authored the study thought it could also be used to halt metastasis, Hamzelou says. The team conducted its experiments on mice and researchers are now working on ways to adapt the study to human subjects.