Combined surgery and photodynamic therapy of cancer

According to the recent guidelines, the gold standard is resecting an extra 0.5–3 cm beyond the lesion margins that are visually detected and/or biopsy confirmed depending on type of malignancy and its localisation to avoid missing the residuals of the tumour. Often, such a large resection leads to dysfunctions of the organ or tissues, which underwent the surgery. In some cases, an extra tumour-free margin cannot be achieved because of tumour proximity to vital sites such as major vascular or nerve structures. Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) is an emerging clinical modality to locally destroy cancer lesions selectively. The limitation of photodynamic therapy is the curable depth of an order of one centimetre or less. A combination of cancer surgery following by PDT can bring a benefit to reduce the resection and minimise the impact on the organ or tissue functionality. Combination of cancer surgery and photodynamic therapy provides another opportunity–fluorescence image guidance of cancer removal. Most of the photosensitizers intensively fluoresce and hence facilitate a strong fluorescence contrast versus healthy adjacent tissues.