Bladder cancer is any of several types of cancer arising from the tissues of the urinary bladder. Symptoms include blood in the urine, pain with urination, and low back pain. It is caused when epithelial cells that line the bladder become malignant.
Cytoluminescent Therapy is a proposed cancer treatment as a form of Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) characterized by a photosensitiser that is supposedly eliminated from normal tissue but selectively accumulated in neoplastic and dysplastic tissue. This is followed by whole body irradiation with light of the specific wave length which activates the photosensitiser. The result is supposed to be selective damage or elimination of tumor cells while normal tissues are unharmed. However, tests as of 2003 did not show any positive clinical effects in a group of 48 patients treated in this way.
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a form of phototherapy involving light and a photosensitizing chemical substance used in conjunction with molecular oxygen to elicit cell death (phototoxicity).
δ-Aminolevulinic acid, an endogenous non-proteinogenic amino acid, is the first compound in the porphyrin synthesis pathway, the pathway that leads to heme in mammals, as well as chlorophyll in plants.
Basal-cell carcinoma (BCC), also known as basal-cell cancer, basalioma or rodent ulcer, is the most common type of skin cancer. It often appears as a painless raised area of skin, which may be shiny with small blood vessels running over it. It may also present as a raised area with ulceration. Basal-cell cancer grows slowly and can damage the tissue around it, but it is unlikely to spread to distant areas or result in death.
Light therapy, also called phototherapy or bright light therapy is the exposure to direct sunlight or artificial light at controlled wavelengths in order to treat a variety of medical disorders, including seasonal affective disorder (SAD), circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, cancers, and skin wound infections. Treating skin conditions such as neurodermatitis, psoriasis, acne vulgaris, and eczema with ultraviolet light is called ultraviolet light therapy.
Actinic keratosis (AK), sometimes called solar keratosis or senile keratosis, is a pre-cancerous area of thick, scaly, or crusty skin. Actinic keratosis is a disorder of epidermal keratinocytes that is induced by ultraviolet (UV) light exposure. These growths are more common in fair-skinned people and those who are frequently in the sun. They are believed to form when skin gets damaged by UV radiation from the sun or indoor tanning beds, usually over the course of decades. Given their pre-cancerous nature, if left untreated, they may turn into a type of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma. Untreated lesions have up to a 20% risk of progression to squamous cell carcinoma, so treatment by a dermatologist is recommended.
PUVA is an ultraviolet light therapy treatment for skin diseases: vitiligo, eczema, psoriasis, graft-versus-host disease, mycosis fungoides, large plaque parapsoriasis, and cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, using the sensitizing effects of the drug psoralen. The psoralen is applied or taken orally to sensitize the skin, then the skin is exposed to UVA.
Sorafenib, sold under the brand name Nexavar, is a kinase inhibitor drug approved for the treatment of primary kidney cancer, advanced primary liver cancer, FLT3-ITD positive AML and radioactive iodine resistant advanced thyroid carcinoma.
Porfimer sodium, sold as Photofrin, is a photosensitizer used in photodynamic therapy and radiation therapy and for palliative treatment of obstructing endobronchial non-small cell lung carcinoma and obstructing esophageal cancer.
Temoporfin (INN) is a photosensitizer used in photodynamic therapy for the treatment of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck . It is marketed in the European Union under the brand name Foscan. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declined to approve Foscan in 2000. The EU approved its use in June 2001.
Talaporfin is a chlorin based photosensitizer used in photodynamic therapy (PDT).
Cancer treatments are a wide range of treatments available for the many different types of cancer, with each cancer type needing its own specific treatment. Treatments can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy including small-molecule drugs or monoclonal antibodies, and PARP inhibitors such as olaparib. Other therapies include hyperthermia, immunotherapy, photodynamic therapy, and stem-cell therapy. Most commonly cancer treatment involves a series of separate therapies such as chemotherapy before surgery. Angiogenesis inhibitors are sometimes used to enhance the effects of immunotherapies.
Nivolumab, sold under the brand name Opdivo, is an anti-cancer medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes melanoma, lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck cancer, urothelial carcinoma, colon cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, liver cancer, gastric cancer, and esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer. It is administered intravenously.
Sonidegib (INN), sold under the brand name Odomzo, is a medication used to treat cancer.
Avelumab, sold under the brand name Bavencio, is a fully human monoclonal antibody medication for the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma, urothelial carcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma.
Lasers are used to treat cancer in several different ways. Their high-intensity light can be used to shrink or destroy tumors or precancerous growths. Lasers are most commonly used to treat superficial cancers such as basal-cell skin cancer and the very early stages of some cancers, such as cervical, penile, vaginal, vulvar, and non-small cell lung cancer.
Tayyaba Hasan is a Professor of Dermatology at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Harvard Medical School. She is one of the inventors of Visudyne, a Food and Drug Administration approved treatment for age-related macular degeneration. She received the 2018 SPIE Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award.
Laser-assisted drug delivery (LADD) is a drug delivery technique commonly used in the dermatology field that involves lasers. As skin acts as a protective barrier to the environment, the absorption of topical products through the epidermis is limited; thus, different drug delivery modalities have been employed to improve the efficacy of these treatments. The use of lasers in LADD has been shown to enhance the penetration of drugs transdermal, leading to a higher absorption rate, limited systemic effects, and reduced duration of treatment. Although this technique has evolved in the past decade due to its efficacy through scientific research and clinical practice, there remain some limitations regarding the safety aspect that needs to be taken into consideration.
Light-emitting diode therapy (LEDT) is a clinical approach that applies different wavelengths of light to cure diseases or conditions with skin-safe lights. Following NASA's innovation in the 1990s with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that emit a specific narrow light spectrum, LED Therapy (LEDT) showed significant potential. The high precision of narrow-band LED therapy enabled its first use in clinical practices. The commonly used lights in LEDT are blue, red, green, yellow, and infrared (IR).
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