Treatment of head and neck cancer with photodynamic therapy: results after one year

Abstract

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new and promising treatment modality for the treatment of malignant disease. This paper reports the preliminary experience of our group in the use of this therapy for the treatment of tumours arising in the head and neck. The majority of treatments in these cases have used a second generation systemic photosensitizer, weto-tetrahydroxyphenylchlorin (ra-THPC). Two other cases were treated with either Photofrin 2 (a first generation systemic sensitizer) or with the topical photosensitizer, delta-aminolaevulinic acid (8-ALA).The initial results have been encouraging with good clinical responses evident in patients presenting with a variety of differing tumour types. We feel there is now sufficient evidence of the efficacy of this treatment to warrant a multicentre prospective study into the treatment of early head and neck cancer with PDT.

Photodynamic therapy using mTHPC for malignant disease in the oral cavity

“…Early clinical work using PDT on the tumor bed after resection of mesotheliomas showed that a dose of 0.3 mg/kg body weight mTHPC, activated with red light at 650 nm with a dose of 10J/cm 2 , produced 10-mm depth of tumor necrosis (Ris et al, 1991) with safe healing. The use of this photosensitizer to treat a variety of tumors in the head and neck region has been reported in a diverse group of 11 patients (Dilkes et al, 1995) with encouraging results.…”

Comparison of δ-aminolaevulinic acid and its methyl ester as an inducer of porphyrin synthesis in cultured cells

“…Exogenous 6-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) is becoming widely used as an inducer of endogenous synthesis of protoporphyrin IX (PPIX), a photosensitizer used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) (Dilkes et al, 1995;Leveckis et al, 1995;Chang et al, 1996;Fromm et al, 1996). One of the limitations of this technique may be the extent to which ALA can enter the cell.…”

Photodynamic Therapy As a Promising Method Used in the Treatment of Oral Diseases

“…Extensive radiotherapy may cause mucositis, xerostomia, loss of taste and smell and even osteoradionecrosis. Surgical excision may leave patients with aesthetic and functional disabilities, impairing swallowing and speaking [27].…”