The bladder is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In humans the bladder is a distensible organ that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters the bladder via the ureters and exits via the urethra. The typical adult human bladder will hold between 300 and 500 ml before the urge to empty occurs, but can hold considerably more.
Cystoscopy is endoscopy of the urinary bladder via the urethra. It is carried out with a cystoscope.
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.
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.
Transitional epithelium is a type of stratified epithelium. Transitional epithelium is a type of tissue that changes shape in response to stretching. The transitional epithelium usually appears cuboidal when relaxed and squamous when stretched. This tissue consists of multiple layers of epithelial cells which can contract and expand in order to adapt to the degree of distension needed. Transitional epithelium lines the organs of the urinary system and is known here as urothelium. The bladder, for example, has a need for great distension.
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.
Methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) is a drug used as a sensitizer in photodynamic therapy. It is a prodrug that is metabolized to protoporphyrin IX. It is marketed as Metvix.
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).
Motexafin lutetium is a texaphyrin, marketed as Antrin by Pharmacyclics Inc.
Photosens is a mixture of sulfonated aluminium phthalocyanines with various degrees of sulfonation. Developed in Russia.
Hexaminolevulinate, sold under the brand names Cysview and Hexvix, is an imaging agent that lights up under blue light during a blue light cystoscopy. It is used to help detect non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), in particular papillary tumors and carcinoma in situ (CIS).
Cancer cells are cells that divide continually, forming solid tumors or flooding the blood or lymph with abnormal cells. Cell division is a normal process used by the body for growth and repair. A parent cell divides to form two daughter cells, and these daughter cells are used to build new tissue or to replace cells that have died because of aging or damage. Healthy cells stop dividing when there is no longer a need for more daughter cells, but cancer cells continue to produce copies. They are also able to spread from one part of the body to another in a process known as metastasis.
Salix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American specialty pharmaceutical company based in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Cevira is in development as a local treatment for Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia lesions and human papilloma virus (HPV) of the cervix without damaging healthy tissue. With Cevira, Photocure aims to develop the first non-surgical treatment for precancerous cervical lesions using photodynamic therapy (PDT). Cevira treatment is administered locally and remains in contact with the cervix to deliver treatment for up to 24 hours. A cup holds the ointment against the cervix for initial absorption. After a few hours, a light source within the cup emits light at a specific wavelength so the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient, hexylaminolevulinate (HAL), react with the tissue.
Julia Levy is a Canadian microbiologist, immunologist, educator and entrepreneur.
This is a historical timeline of the development and progress of cancer treatments, which includes time of discovery, progress, and approval of the treatments.
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.
Padeliporfin, sold under the brand name Tookad, is a medication used to treat men with prostate cancer.
