Department of Otolaryngology, Medical College of The University of Rzeszów, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland.
Department of Biochemistry and General Chemistry, Medical College of the University of Rzeszów, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Jul 24;24(14):11867. doi: 10.3390/ijms241411867.
Head-neck cancers as a group have the 7th highest rate of incidence worldwide. The most often diagnosed disease of the head and neck is squamous cell carcinoma (90% of cases). Another specific group of tumors is brain tumors. These can be divided into primary tumors and secondary tumors associated with metastasis. Research shows that treating head and neck cancers continues to be problematic and challenging, and researchers are actively seeking new treatments that would improve survival rates and reduce side effects. Irradiation of tumor tissue with the optimal wavelength of light in photodynamic therapy (PDT) generates predominantly singlet oxygen in tissue-based photosensitizers (PSs) or reactive oxygen radicals in the case of vascular PSs leading to cellular apoptosis and necrosis. A very important feature of PDT is that cells cannot become immune to the effects of singlet oxygen or reactive oxygen radicals. However, photosensitizer (PS) transport is influenced by the specific structures of cancer tumors and the concentration of PS decreases in cells far from the vessel lumen. Therefore, PSs may not reach tumor interiors, which decreases therapy effectiveness. The use of drug carriers and 3rd generation PSs that contain biocompatible functional groups makes it possible to control transport. This review of the current literature on PDT was conducted through databases such as PubMed and Scopus. The types of publications considered included clinical studies and most of the articles included were published in English. Based on the publications collected, we conclude that researchers have demonstrated the potential of PDT as a therapeutic platform for head, neck, and brain diseases.
头颈部癌症是全球发病率第七高的癌症。头颈部最常见的疾病是鳞状细胞癌（占 90%的病例）。另一组特定的肿瘤是脑肿瘤。这些肿瘤可以分为原发性肿瘤和与转移相关的继发性肿瘤。研究表明，治疗头颈部癌症仍然存在问题和挑战，研究人员正在积极寻找新的治疗方法，以提高生存率并减少副作用。光动力疗法（PDT）中用最佳波长的光对肿瘤组织进行照射，在组织型光敏剂（PS）中主要产生单线态氧，在血管型 PS 的情况下产生活性氧自由基，导致细胞凋亡和坏死。PDT 的一个非常重要的特征是细胞不能对单线态氧或活性氧自由基的作用产生免疫力。然而，光敏剂（PS）的转运受到癌症肿瘤的特定结构的影响，并且 PS 的浓度在远离血管腔的细胞中降低。因此，PS 可能无法到达肿瘤内部，这降低了治疗效果。使用载药系统和包含生物相容性官能团的第三代 PS 可以控制转运。通过 PubMed 和 Scopus 等数据库对 PDT 的当前文献进行了综述。考虑的出版物类型包括临床研究，并且包含的大多数文章都是用英语发表的。根据收集到的出版物，我们得出结论，研究人员已经证明了 PDT 作为头颈部和脑部疾病治疗平台的潜力。
