College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, China.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA.
Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2020 Nov;17(11):657-674. doi: 10.1038/s41571-020-0410-2. Epub 2020 Jul 22.
Light-activated, photosensitizer-based therapies have been established as safe modalities of tumour ablation for numerous cancer indications. Two main approaches are available: photodynamic therapy, which results in localized chemical damage in the target lesions, and photothermal therapy, which results in localized thermal damage. Whereas the administration of photosensitizers is a key component of photodynamic therapy, exogenous photothermal contrast agents are not required for photothermal therapy but can enhance the efficiency and efficacy of treatment. Over the past decades, great strides have been made in the development of phototherapeutic drugs and devices as cancer treatments, but key challenges have restricted their widespread clinical use outside of certain dermatological indications. Improvements in the tumour specificity of photosensitizers, achieved through targeting or localized activation, could provide better outcomes with fewer adverse effects, as could combinations with chemotherapies or immunotherapies. In this Review, we provide an overview of the current clinical progress of phototherapies for cancer and discuss the emerging preclinical bioengineering approaches that have the potential to overcome challenges in this area and thus improve the efficiency and utility of such treatments.
光激活的基于光敏剂的疗法已被确立为治疗多种癌症适应症的安全肿瘤消融方法。有两种主要方法：光动力疗法，导致目标病变中的局部化学损伤，和光热疗法，导致局部热损伤。虽然光敏剂的给药是光动力疗法的关键组成部分，但光热疗法不需要外源性光热对比剂，但可以提高治疗的效率和效果。在过去的几十年中，作为癌症治疗的光疗药物和设备的发展取得了重大进展，但关键挑战限制了它们在某些皮肤病适应症之外的广泛临床应用。通过靶向或局部激活来提高光敏剂的肿瘤特异性，可以在减少不良反应的情况下获得更好的结果，与化疗或免疫疗法联合使用也是如此。在这篇综述中，我们概述了癌症光疗的临床进展，并讨论了新兴的临床前生物工程方法，这些方法有可能克服该领域的挑战，从而提高这些治疗方法的效率和实用性。
