Plasma Processes and Cancer - Special Topical Cluster of the 2nd IWPCT Meeting

(First paragraph) Although the emerging multidisciplinary field of plasma medicine has been around for nearly two decades important advances have already taken place that could one day revolutionize healthcare and the way various challenging diseases can be treated.1-3Amongst these advances the effects of low temperature plasma (LTP) on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo stand out.4-13Current cancer treatment modalities, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, have serious side effects and tend to lose their benefits to the patients after a while. Therefore, novel and improved therapies that can be used alone or in conjunction with other methods are always sought after by the medical community. LTP is proving to be one such possibility. Mounting experimental evidence is showing that LTP acts on cancer cells and tumors via the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) it produces. These chemically reactive species which include O, O2−, OH, H2O2, NO, NO2−, and NO3− exhibit strong oxidative properties and/or trigger signaling pathways in biological cells that could lead to cell death by necrosis or apoptosis. In addition, several investigators have reported that LTP targets cancer cells in a selective manner, mostly sparing their healthy counterparts. This is an important finding that can play a crucial role in the acceptance of plasma technology as a safe and hopefully successful cancer treatment modality