University Times

Surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) have operated on their first patient with cancer of the esophagus using photodynamic therapy, a new treatment that restores the ability to swallow.

According to James Luketich, co-director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Lung Cancer Center, photodynamic therapy is effective for patients on whom conventional surgery is not possible because it does not require an incision. It takes only about 30 minutes.

With photodynamic thera-py, patients remain hospitalized about two days. Conventional surgery to remove the tumor would take about six hours with at least a 10-day hospital stay.

Esophageal cancer strikes more than 12,000 people each year and kills about 11,000 annually. It can prevent a patient from swallowing.

In photodynamic therapy, the drug Photofrin is administered intravenously 40-50 hours prior to treatment. The drug is absorbed in greater concentration by tumor cells than healthy cells.

After the drug is administered, a fine fiber optic probe is inserted into the patient's esophagus, where it directs low-energy, non-thermal laser light at the cancerous tissue. The laser light activates the drug, causing it to destroy the tumor cells.

The first three patients on whom the procedure was tried at UPMC are reported to be doing well.