title: Cold atmospheric plasma, a novel promising anti-cancer treatment modality.
abstract: Over the past decade, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), a near room temperature ionized gas has shown its promising application in cancer therapy. Two CAP devices, namely dielectric barrier discharge and plasma jet, show significantly anti-cancer capacity over dozens of cancer cell lines in vitro and several subcutaneous xenograft tumors in vivo. In contrast to conventional anti-cancer approaches and drugs, CAP is a selective anti-cancer treatment modality. Thus far establishing the chemical and molecular mechanism of the anti-cancer capacity of CAP is far from complete. In this review, we provide a comprehensive introduction of the basics of CAP, state of the art research in this field, the primary challenges, and future directions to cancer biologists.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Dayun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurological Surgery, The George Washington University,Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Sherman
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Keidar
mesh_terms: D003080:Cold Temperature; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D058626:Plasma Gases / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D058626:Plasma Gases
keywords: cancer treatment; cold plasma; reactive species; selectivity