Immunotherapy has attracted tremendous attention in recent years to treat many challenging diseases including cancer. In our recent studies, we have tried to combine phototherapy with immunotherapy using nano-agents as an innovation approach for cancer treatment. Those nanoparticles not only exhibit strong near-infrared (NIR) absorbance for efficient photothermal conversion, but also could serve as nano-adjuvants to promote the immunological responses. Stimulated by the tumor-associated antigens released after photothermal tumor ablation, the triggered immunological responses if in combination with anti-CTLA4 therapy to suppress the activity of regulatory T cells could result in effective inhibition of tumor cells remaining in the body, promising for treatment of cancer metastasis. A strong immune-memory effect was also observed after such treatment. Such a new strategy of cancer immunotherapy that works for various tumor types could effectively ablate primary tumors, inhibit metastases, and trigger strong immune-memory effects to prevent tumor relapses.

Phototherapy-triggered cancer immunotherapy with nanoparticles

253rd National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.