Abstract
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) utilizing Photofrin is proving to be effective for the treatment of early stage lung cancers. The effect of PDT utilizing YAG-OPO laser as new light source was evaluated in 26 patients (29 lesions) with early stage lung cancers. YAG-OPO laser is solid state tunable laser which is easy to change wavelength between 620 and 670 nm exciting various kinds of photosensitizers. Moreover, YAG-OPO laser is more reliable, smaller and has less consumables than argon-dye laser or excimer-dye laser. As the result of PDT with YAG-OPO laser, complete remission (CR) was obtained in 82.6% of the 29 lesions, partial remission (PR) in 13.8% and no change (NC) was obtained in 3.4%. We conclude that PDT utilizing YAG-OPO laser is efficacious in the treatment of early stage lung cancers and can achieve complete remission.