Global cancer care inequality deepens as corporate biotech monopolises light-based therapies, ignoring traditional photomedicine and equitable access
Original framing: “Rakuten Medical eyes U.S. market for its novel idea to conquer cancer” — The Japan Times
Indigenous photomedicine—such as the Maya *temazcal* (sweat lodge) rituals or Aboriginal Australian *light smoking* ceremonies—has used controlled light exposure to treat cancers and infections for centuries, often with outcomes comparable to modern PDT. The suppression of these practices under colonial medical systems (e.g., the 1883 U.S. Dawes Act banning 'heathen' healing) created the conditions for today’s corporate monopolies on light-based therapies. Rakuten’s PDT, while technically advanced, replicates what many Indigenous communities already knew: that specific wavelengths of light can target malignant cells without systemic toxicity. The absence of Indigenous voices in this narrative erases their role as both pioneers and victims of biopiracy.
The Rakuten Medical PDT narrative is a microcosm of how global health innovation is hijacked by corporate power, erasing Indigenous origins, historical precedents, and structural inequities to sell a repackaged solution as revolutionary.
The trickster’s gaze reveals that every 'breakthrough' is a stolen truth, and every patent a new cage—while the marginalised voices of LMIC oncologists and traditional healers expose the absurdity of a system where healing is a luxury. To move forward, we must dismantle the extractive biotech model by democratising knowledge, integrating cultural wisdom, and treating light therapy as a global commons rather than a corporate asset. The path forward lies not in scaling proprietary tech, but in restoring the communal, adaptive, and spiritually integrated practices that have healed humanity for millennia—before they were patented out of existence.