Photodynamic Therapy Facilitates Prostate and Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

New technology uses optical fibers that both emit laser light and gather information about a tumor to enable the application of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in internal organs.

Developed by researchers at Lund University (Sweden) and software company SpectraCure (Lund, Sweden), the PDT protocol is based on unique IDOSE software that uses the optical fibers for more than simply emitting light. Intermittently they also gather information about the tumor, which they send back to the laser instrument. In this way, the software can continually calculate the optimal light dose to activate the phonosensitizing drug (and adjust it if necessary), so that the entire tumor can be removed.

The system allows pretreatment planning, including optimal optical fiber positioning and optimal light dose calculation. Once the photosensitizer is activated by sufficient light in the presence of oxygen, highly reactive, short-lived singlet oxygen and cytotoxic oxygen radicals are generated. Singlet oxygen is a very aggressive chemical species and it will very rapidly react with any nearby biomolecules; ultimately, these destructive reactions kill cells through apoptosis or necrosis. It is therefore critical to adjust the dosimetry accurately so that the interstitial PDT treatment of solid tumors does not damage healthy tissue.

“The advantage of laser light is that it appears that side effects can be minimized. With current treatment methods, prostate cancer patients who are cured risk both impotence and incontinence,” said Johannes Swartling, PhD, of Lund University and Chief Technical Officer at SpectraCure, a spinoff of the university. “I think we are about to see a real breakthrough, both for us and for other research groups around the world who conduct research on cancer treatment using laser light.”

PDT is used clinically to treat a wide range of medical conditions, including wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and malignant cancers, and is recognized as a treatment strategy, which is both minimally invasive and minimally toxic. While the applicability and potential of PDT has been known for over a hundred years, the development of modern PDT has been a gradual one, involving scientific progress in the fields of photobiology and cancer biology, as well as the development of modern photonic devices, such as lasers and light emitting diodes (LEDs).

Related Links:
Lund University
SpectraCure