Kah Glory, Abrahamse Heidi
Laser Research Centre, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Front Immunol. 2025 Jul 17;16:1633953. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1633953. eCollection 2025.
Cancer is a major health problem as it causes significant mortality globally. In the last decades, conventional and recent therapeutic approaches have been used in oncology for cancer treatment. Despite this, the complete eradication of cancer is challenging, as the existing therapeutic strategies for cancer are typically faced with limitations. This is linked to cancer resistance to treatment, which arises because of the versatile nature of cancerous cells. Novel anticancer therapeutic procedures based on immune system activation, such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) and immunotherapy (IOT), are promising in treating resistant tumors. PDT is a minimally invasive treatment that induces cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production for direct elimination of cancerous cells, but can also trigger anticancer effects by activating the immune system of the host. IOT also has significant anticancer efficacy and has emerged as an advanced anticancer treatment that mainly enhances and stimulates the innate immune system of the body to identify and destroy cancerous cells. IOT can also instigate a long-lasting anticancer response by harnessing the body's immune system. PDT and IOT, when used alone, cannot tackle the issue of cancer resistance. This review elucidates the principles, benefits, and setbacks of PDT and IOT, along with the unique attributes that render them suitable for cancer combination therapy. It underscores the advancement of cancer PDT when utilized in combination with IOT (photoimmunotherapy), while also encapsulating the preclinical evidence regarding the efficacy of photoimmunotherapy, and its combination with nanotechnology (Nano-photoimmunotherapy). The key findings indicate that photoimmunotherapy preclinical methods hold great promise in cancer treatment, as they can directly destroy cancer cells through PDT while also stimulating an increased anticancer immunity through co-delivery of IOT agents. Target-specific moieties can be used in nanotechnology-based anticancer photoimmunotherapy techniques to get past resistance and other therapeutic obstacles. However, clinical utilization of photoimmunotherapy procedures is greatly required to warrant the full efficacy.
癌症是一个重大的健康问题，因为它在全球范围内导致了很高的死亡率。在过去几十年中，传统和最新的治疗方法都已应用于肿瘤学领域来治疗癌症。尽管如此，彻底根除癌症仍具有挑战性，因为现有的癌症治疗策略通常存在局限性。这与癌症对治疗的抗性有关，这种抗性源于癌细胞的多面性。基于免疫系统激活的新型抗癌治疗方法，如光动力疗法（PDT）和免疫疗法（IOT），在治疗耐药肿瘤方面很有前景。PDT是一种微创治疗方法，可诱导细胞产生活性氧（ROS）以直接消除癌细胞，但也可通过激活宿主免疫系统触发抗癌作用。IOT也具有显著的抗癌功效，已成为一种先进的抗癌治疗方法，主要增强和刺激机体的先天免疫系统来识别和破坏癌细胞。IOT还可通过利用机体的免疫系统引发持久的抗癌反应。PDT和IOT单独使用时，无法解决癌症抗性问题。本综述阐明了PDT和IOT的原理、益处和不足，以及使其适用于癌症联合治疗的独特特性。它强调了癌症PDT与IOT联合使用（光免疫疗法）时的进展，同时也总结了关于光免疫疗法疗效及其与纳米技术联合使用（纳米光免疫疗法）的临床前证据。关键研究结果表明，光免疫疗法的临床前方法在癌症治疗中具有很大的前景，因为它们可以通过PDT直接破坏癌细胞，同时通过共同递送IOT药物刺激增强抗癌免疫力。基于纳米技术的抗癌光免疫疗法技术可使用靶向特异性部分来克服抗性和其他治疗障碍。然而，光免疫疗法程序的临床应用迫切需要以确保其充分疗效。
