Abstract
Despite aggressive surgical and radiotherapy, recurrence rates for patients with recurrent head and neck carcinomas remain high. Photodynamic therapy has been successfully used to treat patients with early carcinomas. This is due to the ability of the activating laser light to penetrate up to one centimeter into tissue, resulting in destruction of microscopic tumor with preservation of normal tissues. Employing this principle, PDT was used as an adjuvant intraoperative therapy following resection of tumor in five patients with recurrent infiltrating carcinomas of the head and neck. All patients tolerated the treatment without complications and all but one remains free of disease twenty-four months post-treatment. Adjuvant intraoperative PDT may improve cure rates of recurrent head and neck malignancies by providing for larger tumor-free margins of resection while preserving normal structures.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
