Onkológia 5/2007

THE ROLE AND THE PLACE OF PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY IN ONCOLOGY

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a minimally invasive treatment with great promise in malignant disease. It can be applied before or after chemotherapy, ionising radiation or surgery. Unlike radiotherapy or surgery it can be repeated many times at the same site Response rates are as good as standard locoregional treatments and furthermore there is less morbidity and better functional and cosmetic outcome as well. PDT is valuable for premalignant conditions such as mucosal dysplasia and carcinoma in situ. The excellent cosmetic outcome makes it valuable for skin lesions , for lesions of head and neck and oral cavity. With endoscopic delivery PDT has been successfull in the treatment of early gastrointestinal and lung cancers. The superficial effects of PDT can be exploited in the treatment of large areas such as pleura and peritoneum. PDT is also an ideal adjuvant therapy when surgical resection of solid tumors might leave behind residual microscopic disease. Interstitial therapy with flexible light delivery in solid tumors allows PDT to be used for buried tumors, that would otherwise require extensive surgical resection.

Keywords: photodynamic therapy, sensitisators, precancerous lesions, cancer