Present Status of PDT for Lung Cancer using Talaporfin Sodium (Laserphyrin®) in Japan

PDT using porfimer sodium (PFS, Photofrin®) is not widely employed partly because of high cost and bulky size of Laser system, and the adverse effects of skin photosensitization in Japan. To resolve these issues, 2nd generation PDT using talaporfin sodium (TPS, Laserphyrin®, Meiji Seika Pharma Ltd., Japan) and a compact-size diode laser were developed. In this presentation, we demonstrate the superiority of TPS compared to PFS for central-type early-stage lung cancer (ESLC), and the usefulness of PDT using TPS for peripheral-type ESLC by data of recent clinical studies.