Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said on the 11th that a research team led by Professor Lee Geon-jae in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering developed a "three-dimensional micro-LED" device that wraps around the entire pancreas and delivers light directly, through joint research with a team led by Professor Kwon Tae-hyeok at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).
From stage 2, pancreatic cancer forms a hard defensive barrier around the tumor (tumor microenvironment), making surgery difficult, and chemotherapy drugs and immune cells struggle to penetrate, resulting in an extremely low treatment success rate.
The team designed a three-dimensional micro-LED device that bends freely like octopus arms and conforms closely to the surface of the pancreas. The device wraps itself to match the shape of the pancreas and delivers weak light for a long time and evenly, protecting normal tissue while precisely removing only cancer cells.
Applied to live mice, the results showed that within three days the tumor fibrous tissue was reduced by 64%, and the damaged pancreatic tissue recovered to a normal structure.
Professor Kwon Tae-hyeok said, "This study overcomes the limitation of 'deep tissue delivery' in conventional phototherapy," adding, "It will serve as an important stepping stone for expanding immune-based treatment strategies targeting intractable cancers."
Professor Lee Geon-jae said, "This is significant in that it presents a new phototherapy paradigm that directly removes the tumor microenvironment, the biggest barrier to treating pancreatic cancer," and added, "We want to develop it into a platform that can analyze the pancreatic cancer tumor status in real time with artificial intelligence for personalized treatment and find partners for clinical application to commercialize it."
The findings were published as the cover paper in the issue dated the 10th in the international journal "Advanced Materials."