Abstract
Recently, fluorescence detection has been used in diagnosis of lung cancer. In highrisk patients, this method has been especially beneficial for localization of roentgenographically occult lung cancers. The excimer dye laser fluorescence image amalyzer system using Photofrin® as a photosensitizer has been tried for the early detection of lung cancer. With this system both a Photofrin®-specific fluorescence wavelength pat tern and endoscopic image can be seen simultaneously on the same monitor.
Photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) employing this system has performed in 23 cases of lung cancer including 8 cases of caicinoma in situ and 2 cases of vocal coad cancer. Fluorescence was recognized in all cases except one case, however, false positive results were also observed in 10 out of 23 cases with 2 mg/kg of Photofrin®. There are still some problems in this system including improvements widening the angle of divergence of the laser beam and standardization of fluorescence measurement, however, the possibility of photodiagnosis for lung cancer using this system is suggested.
