Study of the anticancer effects of a helium plasma jet combined with four anticancer drugs on 3D bladder tumour spheroids

Current studies of cold atmospheric plasma cancer therapy mainly focus on the application of plasma alone and neglect the application of plasma combined with traditional therapeutic techniques. In this paper, the anticancer effects of a plasma jet combined with four clinical anticancer drugs (cisplatin, methotrexate, adriamycin and paclitaxel) on three-dimensional bladder tumour spheroids (T24 cells) were studied. The results show that all four drugs had little impact on the liquid-phase oxidative pressure induced by the plasma jet, and anticancer effects from strong to weak were as follows: Plasma jet + paclitaxel, plasma jet + adriamycin, plasma jet + cisplatin, plasma jet and plasma jet + methotrexate. Our research indicates that plasma exhibits selectivity in combination with particular anticancer drugs.