Abstract
Objectives. The objective of this study was to assess the short-term effect of plasmonic photothermal therapy (PPTT) on induced hamster buccal pouch (HBP) carcinoma.
Study Design. Seventy-six Syrian golden male hamsters were used. The induced HBP carcinomas were directly injected with similar to 30 nm gold nanospheres followed by 15 min laser exposure (PPTT).
Results. PPTT caused rapid growth cessation and dramatic decrease in tumor sizes after 4 weeks of treatment (P < .05) compared to controls. Microscopic and immunohistochemical examination of the tumor biopsies revealed significant differences in the cellular apoptotic index (AI) value and proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunoexpression in PPTT-treated tumor tissue sections compared to controls (P < .05). Survival probability of the treated animals was increased compared to controls (P < .05).
Conclusion. PPTT proved to be a successful method for treating superficially located HBP carcinomas.