Cancer Treatment Today

The proposd use is off-label. PHOTOFRIN (porfimer sodium) ® is indicated for the palliation of patients with completely obstructing esophageal cancer, or of patients with partially obstructing esophageal cancer who, in the opinion of their physician, cannot be satisfactorily treated with Nd:YAG laser therapy., for the treatment of microinvasive endobronchial non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in patients for whom surgery and radiotherapy are not indicated,for the reduction of obstruction and palliation of symptoms in patients with completely or partially obstructing endobronchial NSCLC.and for the ablation of high-grade dysplasia in Barrett’s esophagus patients who do not undergo esophagectomy.

There is limited information of its use in breast cancer. There is a theoretical concern about uptake into teh breast cacner tissues, and despite some basic science reports and limited data on photodynamic therapy in chest wall breast recurrences, there is not sufficient evidence to support its routine use

Rosa E. Cuenca et al,Breast Cancer With Chest Wall Progression: Treatment With
Photodynamic Therapy Annals of Surgical Oncology, 11(3):322327, 2004

Natashis Shishkova, Olga Kuznetsova, Temirbolat Berezov, Photodynamic Therapy for Gynecological Diseases and Breast. Cancer Biol Med 2012 / Vol. 9 / No. 1 9

Joanna Wezgowiec, et al, Electric Field-Assisted Delivery of Photofrin to Human Breast Carcinoma Cells. J Membr Biol. 2013; 246(10): 725735.