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Doctors use lasers to burst cancer cells
August 12, 1997
Web posted at: 10:48 p.m. EDT (0248 GMT)From Correspondent Al Hinman
PITTSBURGH (CNN) -- A new cancer treatment combining laser light with a light-sensitive chemical is providing a new ray of hope to many cancer patients.
The treatment, called photodynamic therapy, combines the intense, bright light produced by a laser with a light-sensitive chemical called phototrin, which has a special affinity for cancerous cells.
"The hemoglobin that's in our body has picked up that chemical and when this specific laser light hits it, it causes an explosion within the cancer cell," said Dr. Rodney Landreneau of Allegheny General Hospital. "Since it's not concentrated within normal cells, they are spared, relatively."
Therapy could treat many tumors
CNN's Al Hinman reports.
The tumor-blasting procedure has won FDA approval to help slow the progression of cancer of the esophagus, one of the least curable and fastest-spreading cancers, which kills 11,000 Americans per year.
Doctors believe photodynamic therapy could also offer new hope in treating many other tumors. For example, Allegheny General doctors are trying it out in the treatment of lung cancer, the biggest cancer killer in the United States.
"If it's an early cancer that involves the airway, this is a potential option to surgery," Landreneau said.
Before this therapy became available, patients whose lung cancer was diagnosed early enough to operate faced the loss of part or all of a lung, as doctors cut out the cancer and nearby tissue.
May improve quality of life
The effects of such surgery, combined with radiation and chemotherapy, can be harrowing for those who survive. Photodynamic therapy offers a chance for cancer patients to improve their quality of life.
Dan Mariotti's lung cancer was at an advanced stage, and doctors told him the new treatment might do little more than ease his suffering. After a year and a half of treatments, Mariotti died of complications caused by his advanced illness.
But his doctor says the light therapy did improve his quality of life, right up to the end. For others, doctors hope, photodynamic therapy can offer much more, especially for cancers caught and treated early.
Related story:
- Drug-laser therapy is promising treatment for pet cancer - August 30, 1996
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