Breakthroughs and innovations in photodynamic therapy of tumors by lasers: Overview of our four decades experience

We will present an over view of our long-term team(s) experience during four decades in the field of photodynamic therapy (PDT) of tumors by LASER, from drug discovery to clinical applications. The lecture main topics include:

• Our search for ideal photosensitizers and discovery of uroporphyrin ability to be selectively retained in tumors for PDT and mechanism of action
• We will show our novel approach of biodistribution and selective in-vivo tumor localization of endogenous porphyrins induced and stimulated by 5-Aminoleuvulinic acid (ALA) as a newly developed technique which we adopted to treat certain types of cancers
• Removal of skin photo-toxicity after PDT of tumors using our novel approach
• We will show PDT – clinical applications for treatment of certain types of cancers
• Recent therapeutic application of our ALA technique in combination with high energy photons as Radiodynamic therapy (RDT) of deep-seated tumors in lungs and brain
• We will present our future vision for ways to increase PDT- efficacy and where do we go from here.