Hyper accurate: pdd

Medicine today has several methods for the diagnosis of cancer. However, imaging, endoscopy and laboratory tests are not sufficient to assess the spread of tumor cells in the body and to locate these cells exactly. This gap is filled by photodynamic diagnosis (pdd).

Photodynamic therapy (pdt) – in a very simplified way – meant the procedure for the treatment of tumors with light in combination with a light-activated substance, a so called photosensitizer. The resulting reactive oxygen damages the tumor cells and causes them to die.

Photodynamic diagnosis (pdd) make tumors visible by means of a photo-sensitive marker, which accumulate in the desired tissue and fluoresce when irradiated with blue light, clearly distinguishable from benign tissue. Fluorescence is the ability of bodies or substances, reflect the received light in a different wavelength.

The tissue absorbs the solution and converts it to an endogenous pigment. The photosensitizer accumulates in the tumor selectively, where it leads after excitation by blue-violet light to fluoresce in the red to pink area.

Fluorescence diagnostics is established especially in the field of dermatology and urology. In dermatology pdd is suitable for the visualization of basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma or actinic keratosis, in urology, for example, for the identification of bladder cancer.

Experts underline the efficacy of photodynamic diagnosis (pdd) of tumors in head, neck, mouth and throat, gastrointestinal tract, including the esophagus, not least in gynecology for the early diagnosis of cervical cancer.