Cancer-cell microsurgery using nonlinear optical endomicroscopy

Near-infrared laser-based microsurgery is promising for noninvasive cancer treatment. To make it a safe technique, a therapeutic process should be controllable and energy efficient, which requires the cancer cells to be identifiable and observable. In this work, for the first time we use a miniaturized nonlinear optical endomicroscope to achieve microtreatment of cancer cells labeled with gold nanorods. Due to the high two-photon-excited photoluminescence of gold nanorods, HeLa cells inside a tissue phantom up to 250 μm deep can be imaged by the nonlinear optical endomicroscope. This facilitates microsurgery of selected cancer cells by inducing instant damage through the necrosis process, or by stopping cell proliferation through the apoptosis process. The results indicate that a combination of nonlinear endomicroscopy with gold nanoparticles is potentially viable for minimally invasive cancer treatment.