Photoimmunotherapy is destined to become the world’s fifth major cancer treatment after surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy. The breakthrough could enable surgeons to be more effective in surgery by lighting up cancer cells.

A European team of UK, Polish, and Swiss engineers, physicists, neurosurgeons, biologists, and immunologists joined forces to design the new form of photoimmunotherapy.

The light-activated therapy forces cancer cells to glow in the dark, helping surgeons extract more tumors relative to existing techniques. The technique was tried on mice that are suffering from one of the most common and difficult brain tumors to deal with, glioblastoma. The scans revealed that the new treatment exposed the tiniest cancer cells as it lit them up to assist surgeons in the extraction of the cancer cells and then wiped out whatever tiny leftovers.

Moreover, the Institute of Cancer Research in London led trials of the new form of photoimmunotherapy and results showed that the treatment could prime the immune system, preventing glioblastoma from reemerging after the surgery. With this in mind, scientists are now also looking into studying the new treatment in the context of a new treatment for children’s cancer, neuroblastoma.

Read more: Experimental drug trial makes cancer disappear

“Brain cancers like glioblastoma can be hard to treat and, sadly, there are too few treatment options for patients,” the study leader, Dr. Gabriela Kramer-Marek, told the Guardian. “Surgery is challenging due to the location of the tumors, and so new ways to see tumor cells to be removed during surgery, and to treat residual cancer cells that remain afterward, could be of great benefit.”

Scientists from the ICR, Imperial College London, the Medical University of Silesia in Poland, and the Swedish company AffibodyAB believe the new treatment might make extracting difficult tumors like those in the head and neck easier and more successful.

The Cancer Research UK Convergence Science Centre at the ICR and Imperial College London — a collaboration that brings together worldwide experts from engineering, physical, and biological sciences specialties to identify creative methods to combat cancer - sponsored the combined effort in major part.

Read more: AI tool accurately predicts tumor regrowth in cancer patients