Similar effectiveness of methyl aminolevulinate and 5-aminolevulinate in topical photodynamic therapy for nodular basal cell carcinoma.

2006; National Institutes of Health; Volume: 5; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

Autores

DANIËLLE I. M. KUIJPERS, Monique R.T.M. Thissen, Carleine A. C. B. Thissen, Martino Neumann,

Tópico(s)

Infectious Diseases and Mycology

Resumo

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) for basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is a treatment modality that is increasingly used in dermato-oncology. Currently, 2 topical photosensitizers, 5-aminolevulinate (ALA) and methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) are widely used, but their efficacy in BCC has not yet been compared in a clinical setting.To evaluate the effect, degree of pain, and costs of ALA-PDT versus MAL-PDT in nodular BCC (nBCC).Patients suffering from BCC were randomly assigned to either ALA-PDT (n=22) or MAL-PDT (n=21) in a pilot study. In each group, half of the tumors were debulked prior to PDT. Eight weeks after treatment, the therapeutic outcome was checked histologically. Pain scores were assessed using a visual analogue scale.Residual tumor tissue was detected in 6 BCCs of each study group. No significant difference between ALA-PDT and MAL-PDT was found with regard to therapeutic efficacy and pain scores. Of note, however, the costs of MAL-PDT were 6-fold higher than those of ALA-PDT.In this study we did not observe any differences in short-term efficacy between ALA-PDT and MAL-PDT. Therefore, both ALA and MAL can be equally recommended as topical photosensitizers in PDT.

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