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Combining liver cancer treatments doubles survival rates, UVA researchers find
April 16, 2008By combining the use of stents and photodynamic therapy, also called SpyGlass, physicians at the University of Virginia have been able to significantly increase survival rates for patients suffering from advanced cholangiocarcinoma, cancer of the liver bile duct.
"Most patients who develop this type of cancer cannot have surgery as it is diagnosed at such a late stage, so there was not much we could do except offer them palliative care," said University of Virginia Gastroenterologist Michel Kahaleh, M.D., lead investigator of the study. "By combining therapies, we saw an improved survival rate from just more than 7 months to more than 16 months."
In the study, recently published in the March 2008 issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 48 patients were treated with advanced cholangiocarcinoma over a five year period. Twenty-nine patients were treated with biliary stents, with the remaining 19 being treated with the stents and photodynamic therapy (PDT). The stents decompress the bile ducts, maintaining liver function. The combined therapy group received treatment every three months, at which time all stents were replaced.
The combined therapy group had survival rates of 16.2 months compared to the stent-only group's 7.4 months. Mortality rates in the group that received PDT was 0, 16, and 56 percent at three, six, and 12 months respectively. Mortality rates in the stent-only group were 28, 52, and 82 percent respectively. Kahaleh said the number of stent-replacement procedures and PDT sessions were the only factors which significantly impacted survival.
Photodynamic Therapy treatment uses a photosensitizing agent (porfimer sodium in this study) which is activated using light of a specific wavelength, which then kills the targeted cells. PDT has been used for more than a decade to destroy cancer cells and reduce tumor size.
Cancer of the liver bile ducts is the second most common liver cancer and has significant mortality and mortality. Of the approximately 2,000 cases diagnosed each year, the vast majority of patients survive up to three months without intervention or four to six months with decompression treatment.
"Stents alone do not destroy or shrink the tumors or cancer cells. We were not surprised that the combined therapy offers a significant benefit to the patient, as this is accepted treatment in Europe," said Kahaleh. "However the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) wants to see more data so we have completed what we believe is the first published comparative American study on the treatment."
Kahaleh hopes to begin a multi-center trial within six months.
University of Virginia Health System
The combined therapy group had survival rates of 16.2 months compared to the stent-only group's 7.4 months. Mortality rates in the group that received PDT was 0, 16, and 56 percent at three, six, and 12 months respectively. Mortality rates in the stent-only group were 28, 52, and 82 percent respectively. Kahaleh said the number of stent-replacement procedures and PDT sessions were the only factors which significantly impacted survival.
Photodynamic Therapy treatment uses a photosensitizing agent (porfimer sodium in this study) which is activated using light of a specific wavelength, which then kills the targeted cells. PDT has been used for more than a decade to destroy cancer cells and reduce tumor size.
Cancer of the liver bile ducts is the second most common liver cancer and has significant mortality and mortality. Of the approximately 2,000 cases diagnosed each year, the vast majority of patients survive up to three months without intervention or four to six months with decompression treatment.
"Stents alone do not destroy or shrink the tumors or cancer cells. We were not surprised that the combined therapy offers a significant benefit to the patient, as this is accepted treatment in Europe," said Kahaleh. "However the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) wants to see more data so we have completed what we believe is the first published comparative American study on the treatment."
Kahaleh hopes to begin a multi-center trial within six months.
University of Virginia Health System
Photodynamic Therapy News and Current Photodynamic Therapy Events RSSCancer drug delivery research at Case Western Reserve University cuts time from days to hours
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University have developed a technique that has the potential to deliver cancer-fighting drugs to diseased areas within hours, as opposed to the two days it currently takes for existing delivery systems.
Combined stenting and photodynamic therapy improves survival in late stage liver cancer patients
A combined therapeutic approach of stenting and photodynamic therapy may improve survival rates for patients suffering from advanced liver bile duct cancer, according to a study published this month in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
Light powered platinum more targeted & 80 times more powerful than similar cancer treatments
Researchers from the Universities of Warwick, Edinburgh, Dundee and the Czech Republic's Institute of Biophysics have discovered a new light-activated platinum-based compound that is up to 80 times more powerful than other platinum-based anti-cancer drugs and which can use "light activation" to kill cancer cells in much more targeted way than similar treatments.
Photodynamic therapy as alternative therapy for periodontal diseases may be beneficial
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) may be an effective way to treat the bacteria associated with periodontal diseases, and could provide a better option than antibiotics or other mechanical methods for treating periodontal diseases, according to a new study published in the March issue of the Journal of Periodontology.
U-M researchers use nanoparticles to target brain cancer
Tiny particles one-billionth of a meter in size can be loaded with high concentrations of drugs designed to kill brain cancer.
Can further studies lower the cost of preserving vision?
The results of two large, randomized clinical trials published October 5, 2006, in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate that the drug ranibizumab is an effective treatment for neovascular macular degeneration, a complication of age-related macular degeneration that leads to the vast majority of legal blindness associated with the disorder.
Photodynamic Therapy Is an Alternative to Removal of Esophagus
When you think of heartburn, you probably think of greasy food, not cancer. You may not know that chronic heartburn is linked to esophageal cancer.
Light activated anticancer drug targeted to DNA using cisplatin like sub-units
One of the most effective chemotherapy drugs against cancer is cisplatin because it attaches to cancer DNA and disrupts repair.
Using light under your skin
You have a tiny wound on your hand that doesn't heal, a bad burn on your chest - or an injured retina. Your doctor cannot tell how serious the injuries are below the surface. He needs tissue samples. That means using a scalpel, which again equals pain, perhaps even a risk. Soon there may be hope for an improved and totally harmless method to peer under the surface of the skin: light.
Slide Projector Kills Herpes Simplex Virus
A lot of people suffer from herpes for all their lives. The herpes simplex virus (Type 1) constantly inhabits the organism revealing its presence from time to time. Once highly active anti- herpes drugs were developed (acyclovir and phosofonoacetic acids), the virus responded with new forms resistant to theses drugs. The Belorus researchers from the State Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health, Republic of Belorus, and the Institute of Photobiology, National Academy of Sciences of Belorus, have suggested to fight these mutant viruses by the photodynamic inhibition method. The method is based on the photosensitive reactions, which take place in biol
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