Refine
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (2)
Language
- English (2) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (2)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (2)
Keywords
- Kaltes Plasma (1)
- Melanom (1)
- Mitochondrium (1)
- Onkologie (1)
- Plasmamedizin (1)
There has been a substantial evolution of anti-cancer therapies in the last decade, leading
to improved prognosis and disease-free survival of patients with melanoma. Due to the
number of patients that still develop resistance or to the high systemic toxicity and side
effects, new treatment options are still needed. Regardless of the type of therapeutic
interventions (except surgery), the reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a by-product or
contribute to the action mechanism of many successful therapies. In this context, medical
cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) arises as a promising tool, and studies are important to
prove the effectiveness of this new device.
Since combination therapies are the current standard way to treat melanoma, we explored
candidates to be combined with cold atmospheric plasma, with potential to become a
therapeutic option in the combination. Here, we tested the radiotherapy and clinically safe
mitochondrial inhibitor drugs. In the end of the study, both, ionizing radiation and four
mitochondrial-targeted-drugs showed to be promising candidates for the combination with
CAP. These combinations induced increased cytotoxicity and modulated the immune
system improving the anti-tumor immune response. Mitochondrial damage seems to be
the first stage to induce cellular deficiency and culminate in apoptotic cell death.
Furthermore the release of GM-CSF contribute to a pro inflammatory state and immune
system activation.
This dissertation showed that CAP serves as an excellent tool to boost melanoma cell
death and induce anti-tumor response. In addition, in our proposed therapeutic
combination, the intensity of plasma treatment could be decreased possibly resulting in
less systemic toxicity. Our results serves as model to be studied in other tumor entities.
Plasma medical oncology: Immunological interpretation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma
(2020)
Over the past several years, various important articles focusing on cancer therapy
approaches in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) using cold
atmospheric plasma (CAP) have been published (SEMMLER et al. 2020 [53],
METELMANN et al. 2018 [44], KEIDAR et al. 2011 [33]). This doctoral thesis presents
selected results from a prospective observational clinical study in CAP therapy of
palliative HNSCC patients, carried out at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial
Surgery/Plastic Surgery of the Greifswald University Medicine. For oral and
maxillofacial surgeons, ulcerated surfaces of locally advanced head and neck squamous
cell carcinomas (UICC IV) offer a challenging treatment assignment with microbial
contamination and tumour progression. The clinical attempt appears to eradicate
microbial contamination and to initiate tumour regression. This doctoral thesis will
describe the processes of human tumour biology and tumour immunology in HNSCCs
and the extent of present knowledge concerning plasma medical oncology as an
anticancer modality. In the introduction of the doctoral thesis clinical results of plasma
therapy in locally advanced HNSCCs (UICC IV) are set out. This mainly includes the
investigation of a therapeutic concept, the treatment phases, the tumour size development
and the morphological changes of the infected tumour surface following cold atmospheric
plasma therapy. In the main part, a detailed immunological interpretation is proposed on
the basis of present preclinical and clinical immunological knowledge. Finally,
unexplored questions in plasma medical oncology are highlighted. This is highly
significant for future plasma research and clinical anticancer therapy.