Can Photodynamic Therapy be used to treat liver metastases?
A study from Germany and a FDA clinical trial undertaken by Life Science Oncology in the US suggests the potential efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of liver metastases. Results of the German study were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in December 2002. A research team led by Kerstin Engelmann, MD, of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt-am-Main, treated five patients using a photosensitizing drug called SQN 400. This agent, manufactured by Scotia QuantaNova (SQN), is activated by infrared light at a wavelength of 740 nanometers. SQN 400 is the trade name of a chemical called meta-tetra (hydroxyphenyl) bacteriochlorin (mTHPBC), which is a chemically modified form of chlorophyll, or chlorin. All patients in the study had colorectal cancers that had spread to the liver, and all had been treated previously with chemotherapy. One had also received radiation therapy, and another had undergone the surgical removal of
