Survival and quality of life remain poor for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that cannot be fully resected safely, and form therapy-resistant residual and recurrent tumors. We report novel cell-level technology, quadrapeutics. Quadrapeutics converts surgery, drug, and radiation therapies into on-demand microtreatment that unites the diagnosis and treatment in 1 rapid procedure by using 4 standard components: (1) targeted gold colloids; (2) liposomal drugs; (3) a laser pulse; and (4) radiation, all at safe doses. The therapeutic strength of quadrapeutics increases with cancer aggressiveness. In animal models of a primary and microscopic residual HNSCC, quadrapeutics increased the efficacy of standard chemoradiation therapy by more than 17-fold by using only 3% to 6% of clinical doses of drug and radiation, did not cause side effects, and detected residual microtumors in vivo intraoperatively. Quadrapeutics can be applied to detect and eradicate HNSCC and similar microtumors in a safe and rapid theranostic procedure.
Keywords: laser; plasmonic nanobubbles; quadrapeutics; squamous cell carcinoma; theranostics.
© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.