Clinical outcomes of photodynamic therapy for head-and-neck cancer

Head-and-neck cancers not only carry poor prognoses, but also reduced quality of life for the patients. Disease control is often achieved at the expense of substantial functional loss and disfigurement. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is particularly well suited to the treatment of head-and-neck-tumors because it has little effect on underlying functional structures and has an excellent cosmetic outcome. Studies in the past decades have shown that PDT is of similar efficacy as traditional measures in the treatment of early-stage head-and-neck cancers with an overall response rate of 85%-100%, with up to 75% of the complete responses sustained at 2 years after PDT. For advanced head-and-neck cancers, studies were also conducted to evaluate the palliative effects of PDT. Overall, a 58%-70% palliative benefit can be observed in these patients. Using interstitial PDT, the median survival of the patients with recurrent unresectable head-and-neck cancers can be improved to 14 months (cf. 226 days by using surface illumination PDT). PDT is thus a therapeutic option that may prove a useful addition to the armamentarium of the integrated head and neck oncology team.