title: Photodynamic therapy for enhancing antitumour immunity.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new modality in cancer treatment. It is based on the tumour-selective accumulation of a photosensitizer followed by irradiation with light of a specific wavelength. PDT is becoming widely accepted owing to its relative specificity and selectivity along with absence of the harmful side-effects of chemo and radiotherapy. There are three known distinct mechanisms of tumour destruction following PDT, generation of reactive oxygen species which can directly kill tumour cells, tumour vascular shutdown which can independently lead to tumour destruction via lack of oxygen and nutrients and thirdly enhanced antitumour immunity.
  
  
  METHODS
  A review based on the literature acquired from the PubMed database from 1983 with a focus on the enhanced antitumour immunity effects of PTD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tumour cell death is accompanied by the release of a large number of inflammatory mediators. These induce a non-specific inflammatory response followed by gradual adaptive antitumour immunity. Further, a combination of PDT with the immunological approach has the potential to improve PDT efficiency and increase the cure rate. This short review covers specific methods for achieving these goals.
authors: Department of Medical Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Palacky University Olomouc, Czech Republic.
authors: Klara
authors: K
authors: Pizova
authors: Katerina
authors: K
authors: Tomankova
authors: Adela
authors: A
authors: Daskova
authors: Svatopluk
authors: S
authors: Binder
authors: Robert
authors: R
authors: Bajgar
authors: Hana
authors: H
authors: Kolarova
mesh_terms: D056704:Adaptive Immunity / Q000187:drug effects; D000818:Animals; D003167:Complement Activation; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000187:drug effects; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010778:Photochemotherapy / Q000379:methods; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents