Pleural Photodynamic Therapy and Surgery in Lung Cancer and Thymoma Patients with Pleural Spread.

ABSTRACT: Pleural spread is difficult to treat in malignancies, especially in lung cancer and thymoma. Monotherapy with surgery fails to have a better survival benefit than palliative chemotherapy, the currently accepted treatment. Photodynamic therapy utilizes a photosensitizer to target the tumor site, and the tumor is exposed to light after performing a pleurectomy and tumor resection. However, the benefits of this procedure to lung cancer or thymoma patients are unknown. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with lung cancer or thymoma with pleural seeding who underwent pleural photodynamic therapy and surgery between 2005 and 2013. Eighteen patients enrolled in this study. The mean patient age was 52.9 ± 12.2 years. Lung cancer was the incit

SUBMITTER: Chen KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4507875 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature