Mr. Patel, MCG School of Dentistry Junior, Dr. Jill Lewis, associate professor of oral biology, Dr. Regina Messer, associate professor of oral rehabilitation and oral biology, and Dr. John Wataha, adjunct professor of oral rehabilitation and oral biology, have recently concluded early studies pointing to the possible use of Blue Light to help treat cancer.

Apparently, the study used 10 mice with tumors. 5 of the mice went untreated while the other 5 received doses of the blue light for 90 seconds a day for 12 days. At the end of the 12 days, the tumors were removed for study. Of the 10, the 5 that had received treatments showed a 10% increase of apoptosis (cell suicide) in the tumor cells, but not in healthy cells.

Early hopes are that in time blue light therapy can lighten the amount of current treatment methods needed, such as chemotherapy, to reduce the discomfort and affect to the patient’s health.

The blue lights used are reported to be those common to dental procedures that use blue light to harden tooth fillings. While the wavelength was not disclosed in this article, standard wavelengths for this procedure run between 430 – 470 nanometers.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/mcog-blu062408.php