Photodynamic therapy using Light Emitting Diode (LED) for malignant mesothelioma

Abstract

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy which can be associated with asbesto's exposure. There is no proven curative modality and the median survival ranges from 6-18 months. Recently, the multitargeted antifolate pemetrexed (ALIMTA^®) has been approved as the front-line agent in combination with cisplatin for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma. However, the overall outcome remains very poor despite current available therapies. In this study, we developed a new treatment strategy for malignant mesothelioma by photodynamic therapy (PDT) using Laserphyrin^® and an LED (light emitting diode). We performed sensitivity tests on human malignant mesothelima cell lines, MSTO-211H, NCI-H2052, NCI-H2452, NCI-H28 cells against PDT using LED in vitro. PDT using LED and Laserphyrin^® had strong anti-tumor effect. Furthermore, we transplanted MSTO-211H cells into Balb/c nude mice, and we performed PDT in vivo. PDT using an LED cured the tumor as completely as PDT using laser in vivo.
We conclude that PDT using LEDs can be useful for malignant mesothelioma in the experiment clinically and we hope to develop LEDs system for the thoracic wall. we will conduct clinical study combining PDT using LEDs and anti-cancer agents for malignant mesothelioma.