Cold atmospheric plasma therapy for lung cancer: mechanistic and therapeutic approach.

Authors

Muskan Jain, Mohammed A S Abourehab, Garima Gupta, Khang Wen Goh, Prashant Kesharwani

Published in

International journal of pharmaceutics. Pages 127494. Sep 29, 2026. Epub Sep 29, 2026.

Abstract

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) has gained increasing attention as redox-based therapeutic strategies for lung cancer. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species produced by plasma particularly impair intracellular redox equilibrium, mitochondrial integrity and stress responsive signalling, leading to cytotoxicity that is particular to cancer. This review highlights recent mechanistic and translational research revealing that, depending on plasma delivery mode, exposure parameters, and tumour intrinsic redox capacity, CAP induce lung cancer cell death through several regulated pathways including apoptosis and ferroptosis. Beyond cell death, this plasma treatment also decreases epithelial-mesenchymal transition and metastatic behaviour while actively reprogramming oncogenic signalling. Significantly data from immune-inclusive and three-dimensional tumour models emphasizes how important tumour architecture, extracellular matrix and immune control are in determining plasma response. Current research supports the development of CAP as adaptable redox-modulating treatments that can target lung cancer through cytotoxic and signalling based pathways.

PMID:
42810602
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Sep 2026.

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