Biomedical applications of cold atmospheric pressure plasmas: Context, main results, issues and challenges

The last decade has seen an impressive increase of the research dedicated to the biomedical applications of low temperature plasmas, especially with plasma sources working at atmospheric pressure. In this new trend, beside decontamination/sterilization and surface treatment which have already a quite long story through low pressure plasma research and developments, medical applications are tacking an increasing place underlined by the actual numerous clinical trials. Medical applications of low temperature plasmas now concern a very wide range of domains, including primary hemostasis and blood coagulation, dental care, skin decontamination and hygiene, wound and ulcer treatment, dermatology, cancer treatment. Biological applications are also now extended to agriculture and, more recently, to cosmetic. Despite the huge number of in vitro and in vivo experiments there are still a large number of remaining questions concerning the processes leading to the observed results, but also the specific role of the different plasma components that are directly linked both to the plasma production devices and the presence of the living target (biological tissues and materials, organs and their direct environment). Beside the radical production, we will emphasize on the potential role of the strong electric field generated around the plasma plume of atmospheric plasma jet systems, and discuss possible changes induced in microenvironment of tissues or tumors. We will also emphasize on the fact that plasma diagnostics must be performed in real treatment conditions.

In this talk, after a presentation of the context, the plasma devices, and the main applications, considering the specific case of cancer treatment, we will go through what have been already demonstrated concerning in vitro and in vivo experiments, what problems are directly linked with discharges including recent results on electric field measurements in plasma biological application conditions, what are the challenges in front us, and finishing trying to draw what are the main perspectives in the domain.