Application of photodynamic therapy in cancer: Challenges and advancements

Abstract

Although great achievements have been made in the past decades in medicine, cancer remains a worldwide public health issue. Surgery is usually accompanied by shortcomings such as residual lesions and poor treatment effects, and the successive appearance of other treatment methods, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, has not changed the postoperative recurrence rate, toxicity, and side effects. However, the advent of photodynamic therapy has greatly improved this situation. Photodynamic therapy is an emerging tumor diagnosis and treatment technology with good application prospects, photodynamic therapy uses a specific wavelength of light to excite a photosensitizer to generate reactive oxygen species, damage tumor blood vessels and promote tumor cell apoptosis, exerting an antitumor effect. Photodynamic therapy has become a new clinical anti-tumor therapy due to its clear efficacy, few side effects, and easy use in combination with other therapies. In this review, we summarized the main mechanism, current challenges, and advancements of photodynamic therapy.