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©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Photodynamic therapy: A next alternative treatment strategy for hepatocellular carcinoma?
Feng Zhu, Bi-Rong Wang, Zheng-Feng Zhu, Si-Qin Wang, Chu-Xing Chai, Dan Shang, Min Li
Feng Zhu, Si-Qin Wang, Dan Shang, Department of Vascular Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, Hubei Province, China
Bi-Rong Wang, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Wuhan Fourth Hospital (Puai Hospital), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, Hubei Province, China
Zheng-Feng Zhu, Department of Cardiology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, Hubei Province, China
Chu-Xing Chai, Min Li, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Zhu F, Wang B and Zhu Z contributed equally to this work and drafted the manuscript; Li M and Zhu F revised the manuscript; Zhu F, Wang S and Chai C collected the references; Li M and Shang D designed the work; all authors made the final approval of this version.
Supported by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, No. WX14B22; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81874208 and No. 81700425.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Min Li, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Surgeon, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan 430022, Hubei Province, China. liminmed@hust.edu.cn
Received: April 25, 2021
Peer-review started: April 25, 2021
First decision: June 13, 2021
Revised: June 20, 2021
Accepted: September 8, 2021
Article in press: September 8, 2021
Published online: December 27, 2021
Liver cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Of all types of liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is known to be the most frequent primary liver malignancy and has seriously compromised the health status of the general population. Locoregional thermal ablation techniques such as radiofrequency and microwave ablation, have attracted attention in clinical practice as an alternative strategy for HCC treatment. However, their aggressive thermal effect may cause undesirable complications such as hepatic decompensation, hemorrhage, bile duct injury, extrahepatic organ injuries, and skin burn. In recent years, photodynamic therapy (PDT), a gentle locoregional treatment, has attracted attention in ablation therapy for patients with superficial or luminal tumors as an alternative treatment strategy. However, some inherent defects and extrinsic factors of PDT have limited its use in clinical practice for deep-seated HCC. In this contribution, the aim is to summarize the current status and challenges of PDT in HCC treatment and provide potential strategies to overcome these deficiencies in further clinical translational practice.
Core tip: The application of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) therapy is limited due to its low penetration depth of light irradiation, the reduced generation of reactive oxygen species by conventional photosensitizers in the aggregated state, and the nontargeted accumulation in cancer cells. Once these problems are resolved, PDT will be a promising alternative treatment strategy for HCC.
