Laser treatment for liver metastases : thermal and photodynamic therapy

Medical laser applications are one of the points of interest of the Department of Surgery of the Erasmus University Rotterda._"Il. In 1988. experiments were conducted at the Laboratory for Experimental Surgery to investigate the use of laser in destroying liver metastases. These studies led to the research program "Laser treatment of experimental liver metastases", that was supported by the Netherlands Digestive Disease Foundation from beginning 1990 to the middle of 1992. Within this project, studies were carried out in close collaboration with the Departments of Pathology, Internal Medicine II, and Radiology of the Erasmus University. Joint studies were performed with the groups of the Department of Physics of the Dr. Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center and the Laser Center of the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam. This thesis describes the results of the studies mentioned above. The General Introduction gives an outline of the problem of hepatic metastases, the aims of the study, and the tumor model applied. The following parts on thermal and photodynamic therapy start with an introduction of the fundamentals of these laser applications. The second last part presents initial studies on the complex matter oflaser-tissue interaction. Finally, general considerations are given for possible clinical use.

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