Cancer has taken many of our loved ones away.

Some go through chemotherapy, others have surgery to remove the cancer and in some cases the cancer comes back or was never fully removed and therefore continues to grow. A doctor is playing his part in helping to create more cancer survivors.

Dr. Samuel Achilefu created goggles that will help decrease the chances of cancer reappearing.

Surgeons wear the goggles during surgery and the cancerous cells glow blue to ensure the doctor will see and remove the cell.

“I want to play a role in eradicating cancer or making it a manageable disease. Toward this goal, we have developed a new approach to kill cancer cells, independent of the cancer type.”

To help him achieve this goal not only did he invent the goggles, he is currently working on creating a light-based cancer therapy that will help doctors reach tumors in deep tissue.

“There is a method of killing cancer with light – photodynamic therapy. People use it to treat superficial cancers, such as skin cancer, because the cancer has to be reachable by light to activate a light-sensitive drug. Or you can use an endoscope to introduce light to activate and kill cancer cells inside the body.

We’ve discovered a new approach of using existing radiopharmaceuticals to create a light source within the tumor cells. We have tested this concept with success in animal models of cancer and plan to move into human studies in future.”

Dr. Achilefu is a man on a mission to save lives and give hope to the hopeless!