A device originally developed for NASA to perform plant growth experiments in space has been found in a two year clinical trial to be effective in reducing pain associated with oral mucositis, a side effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, in bone marrow and stem cell transplant patients. Quantum Devices, of Barneveld, Wisconsin developed the WARP 75 device that uses 288 LED’s, each supposedly generating the light energy equivalent of being illuminated by 12 suns.
The WARP 75 device was used for light therapy treatment on cancer patients during a two-year clinical trial funded by NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The clinical trial found that 670 nanometers of light technology, used for plant growth experiments on the International Space Station, improved the painful side effects of chemotherapy and radiation in cancer patients undergoing bone marrow or stem cell transplants. The trial included 20 cancer patients from Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, and 60 cancer patients from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Alabama, also in Birmingham.
The device uses High Emissivity Aluminiferous Luminescent Substrate, or HEALS, which is a type of LED technology that provides intense light energy.
Press release: NASA’S LIGHT TECHNOLOGY SUCCESSFULLY REDUCES CANCER PATIENTS’ PAINFUL SIDE EFFECTS FROM RADIATION AND CHEMOTHERAPY
More from NASA: NASA Light Technology Successfully Reduces Cancer Patients’ Painful Side Effects from Radiation and Chemotherapy
Product page: WARP 75…
(hat tip: Qmed)