[Photodynamic therapy at the threshold of clinical use in disseminated dermatoses]

A clinical review of PDT for cutaneous malignancies

More critical than for most other anatomy, intervention to cutaneous malignancy must not only be therapeutically successful but also achieve excellent cosmetic and functional outcome. As it can achieve those ends, PDT has moved to the forefront in the management of skin cancer. A number of well designed clinical trials and large patient series have reported outstanding outcomes for many histologies. This paper will review the rationale and outcomes of cutaneous PDT to malignancy using both topical and systemic photosensitizers. The benefits and drawbacks of cutaneous PDT are also examined.

Topical photodynamic therapy for patients with therapy-resistant lesions of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma

Photodynamic therapy after topical application of 5-aminolevulinic acid is an effective therapy for nonmelanoma epithelial skin cancers. It has also been used for some cases of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. We treated 4 patients with different cutaneous T-cell lymphomas with photodynamic therapy. Those patients had previously reached a partial remission with more conventional therapies, but single lesions had remained. In all of these cases a complete remission of these lesions was achieved. We, therefore, suggest that photodynamic therapy can be a useful additional treatment modality for patients with therapy-resistant lesions of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.