Light-induced oxaliplatin dissociation from Silicon microwires for phototherapeutic cancer treatment

Cancer remains as one the highest causes of death and is predicted to surge in the future. Many drugs have been synthesized and passed clinical trial to treat the malignant cancer cells, but many improvements are needed for better chemotherapy. Some of the major drawbacks with many cancer drugs is their relatively low selectivity for cancer cells and the (resultant) need for high drug concentrations for therapy. A well-known metal-based anticancer drug, oxaliplatin, has been studied to treat cancer in tandem with other materials to circumvent these problems. Nanoparticles have been used in core-shell structures as IR emitters for tumor mapping in humans. In this study, we aim to combine these techniques but to develop a drug delivery method using silicon microwires (MWs) coated with oxaliplatin as cancer treatment. We want to investigate how to dissociate the Si-O bond with light and enhance the yield and selectivity using Si MWs coated with oxaliplatin, with the view of developing a photodynamic therapeutic method.