Approaches toward combining photodynamic therapy with pharmaceuticals that alter vascular microenvironment.
Photodynamic therapy has been widely replaced by antiangiogenesis agents for the first-line therapy for exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD). There is a strong basis for predicting that a combination of photodynamic therapy and antiangiogenesis agents may address the relative disadvantages of each. By improving the rates of response, photodynamic therapy has the potential to reduce the frequency with which intravitreal injections of antiangiogenesis agents are required. Antiangiogenesis agents may augment the activity of photodynamic therapy by inhibiting its counterproductive upregulation of vascular endothelial growth factor. Clinical studies of this combination are being advanced in both AMD and in the treatment of malignancies.
Busch
Theresa
T
Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. buschtm@mail.med.upenn.edu
D000368:Aged; D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D020256:Choroidal Neovascularization / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006801:Humans; D008268:Macular Degeneration / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors
D020533:Angiogenesis Inhibitors; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents; C467484:VEGFA protein, human; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A