Tumour cell damage and leucocyte infiltration after laser immunotherapy treatment

Immune response after laser-photosensitiser application could be crucial in treatment of cancers, because without it there could be no systemic, long-term tumour control. Laser immunotherapy, a novel method for treatment of metastatic tumours, uses a near-infrared laser, a laser-absorbing dye indocyanine green, and an immunoadjuvant glycated chitosan. This modality has shown an induced antitumour immune response in treatment of rat mammary metastatic tumours. The influence of this new method on the cellular structure of the tumours and on the infiltrating immune cells was studied using optical and electron microscopes. The tumour samples were examined before and immediately after the treatment for acute effects, which appeared mainly photothermal. Two weeks after treatment, significant infiltrating lymphocytes and plasma cells were found around the surviving tumour cells. These morphological findings suggest that both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses could be responsible for the observed tumour eradication and induced long-term tumour resistance.