Background: The treatment of persistent and recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains a challenge, especially in Indonesia. We investigated the safety and efficacy of temoporfin mediated photodynamic therapy (PDT) for patients with local persistent and recurrent NPC. Material and methods: Twenty-two patients with persistent and recurrent NPC (maximum tumor depth <10mm) underwent PDT under local anesthesia with use of a nasopharyngeal light applicator. Three different drug doses and light intervals have been administered: treatment arm A: 0.15mg/kg Foscan®; 96h drug-light interval; B: drug dose of 0.10mg/, 48h drug-light interval; C: drug dose of 0.075mg/kg, 24h drug-light interval. Toxicity was measured by using the CTCAE 3.1 scale. Results: Arm A consisted of eight patients, arms B and C consisted of seven patients. The treatment procedure was well tolerable under local anesthesia. The most common grade III toxicities for all groups is headache (n=7; 33%). No grade IV toxicity was seen. One patient died 2 days after treatment due to a misdiagnosed pneumonia. In 17 of the 22 patients a biopsy was performed after 40 weeks and showed no tumor in all biopsies. Arm A seems, in addition to comparable toxicity, clinically more effective than arms B and C. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that temoporfin mediated photodynamic therapy is a relatively simple technique that can be utilized to treat residual or recurrent nasopharyngeal cancer, restricted locally to the nasopharynx.

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doi.org/10.1016/j.pdpdt.2012.07.002, hdl.handle.net/1765/37760
Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Nyst, H. J., Wildeman, M., Indrasari, S. R., karakullukcu, B., van Veen, R., Adham, I. M., … Tan, I. B. (2012). Temoporfin mediated photodynamic therapy in patients with local persistent and recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma after curative radiotherapy: A feasibility study. Photodiagnosis and Photodynamic Therapy, 9(3), 274–281. doi:10.1016/j.pdpdt.2012.07.002