By Sierrah Laurent, Research Team Member
The unfortunate tale of cancer diagnoses is that it brings pain and sorrow whenever it strikes. Cancer patients, survivors or one who has suffered alongside a loved one with the disease understands the anguish and helplessness that trail the diagnosis. Such feelings and challenges that are faced by individuals along with families are what make it crucial for cancer research to continue and aim to improve the prevention, detection, and treatment of various cancers to ensure that individuals live longer, a quality of life that they deserve.
Fig. 1. Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green
Although there are current conventional treatment approaches, such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, significant advances continue to be researched and tested in recent times, including stem cell therapy, nanoparticles, targeted therapy and more. Interestingly, it’s made headlines that multidisciplinary physicist Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green received a $1.1 million research award to further develop a unique LANT (laser-activated nano-therapy) multicancer treatment. The technique would involve injecting a cancer patient with an FDA-approved medication containing nanoparticles, causing the patient's tumor to fluoresce, or shine when imaged by a machine. The idea is to heat the nanoparticles with a laser to activate them, creating a thermal death for the cancer cells.
While Green is not the first to propose the use of lasers and nanoparticles in the treatment of cancer, she has been successful in perfecting certain aspects of the technology, such as the transport of nanoparticles and its success in animals, specifically mice.
According to her reports, mice who received a single laser-activated nano therapy treatment over a period of 15 days had "~100 percent tumour regression (shrinkage)." A board-certified pathologist verified that the mouse tumour had disappeared after 15 days.
Close to Home:
Green's personal history with cancer fuels her drive to find a way to treat it. She grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, but after the death of her mother and father, she was raised by her aunt and uncle, General Lee Smith and his wife, Ora Lee. Unfortunately, Ora Lee was diagnosed with cancer, and according to Green, she refused the treatment because she didn't want to experience the side effects. Three months later, her uncle was also diagnosed with cancer, and Green decided to take time off from school to help him through chemotherapy and radiation treatments. She witnessed how devastating it was for her uncle to proceed with such treatments, understanding why her aunt didn't want to experience that.
After Green earned a bachelor's degree in physics with a concentration in fibre optics, she received a full scholarship to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she got the idea to use lasers to treat cancer without the side effects of chemo and radiation.
In addition to continuing her research and teaching at Tuskegee University, Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green finds time to give speeches at youth activities, schools, and Boys & Girls Clubs. Since many female scientists are underrepresented in the media, she believes it is her duty to provide a good example and challenge negative perceptions of women in the media.
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