Distribution of protoporphyrin IX in Bowen's disease and basal cell carcinomas treated with topical 5-aminolaevulinic acid

8 October 1994

proceedings article
Published by SPIE-Intl Soc Optical Eng

p. 490-494
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.203399

Abstract

We have used ultra-low light level fluorescence microscopy to examine the suggestion that the relatively poor response of human basal cell carcinomas (BCC) to topical 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA)-based photodynamic therapy (PDT) arises from limited drug penetration into the lesion. The distribution of ALA-induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) in human BCC and Bowen's disease was examined and, in almost all cases, was found to be most intense in those regions of tumor immediately adjacent to the dermis. This distribution was independent of tumor type, and did not appear to be affected by tumor depth in the skin. It is suggested that ALA penetration may not limit the efficacy of ALA-PDT in the treatment of BCC. Failure of superficial ALA-based PDT in basal cell carcinoma may, instead, be related to the histological structure of this type of lesion.

Keywords

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: