TIME-LAPSE FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY TO QUANTIFY THE EFFICACY OF DRUGS AND NON-IONIZING RADIATION AS CANCER THERAPIES

Significant efforts are being made to understand and treat cancer, though methods are costly, invasive, and detrimental to healthy surrounding tissues. Techniques in optical imaging assess cancer cells’ state in response to treatments. The purpose of this study is to employ non-ionizing radiation as a potential safer therapeutic option and use timelapse fluorescence microscopy to monitor and quantify treatments to lung cancer cells. This thesis (1) measures and visualizes effects of a combinatory repurposed drug treatment through monitoring cellular metabolic state with time-lapse fluorescence microscopy and (2) develops a non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation system as a possible therapy modality. Results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of a combinatory drug treatment and promising capability of non-ionizing radiation treatment, determined by an increase in fluorescence intensity correlated with metabolic state. In the future, different irradiation doses and drug combinations will be used for additional cancer cell lines, such as prostate and breast cancer.