Critical dosimetry measures and surrogate tools that can facilitate clinical success in PDT

Photodynamic therapy can be a highly complex treatment with more than one parameter to control, or in some cases it is easily implemented with little control other than prescribed drug and light values. The role of measured dosimetry as related to clinical adoption has not been as successful as it could have been, and part of this may be from the conflicting goals of advocating for as many measurements as possible for accurate control, versus companies and clinical adopters advocating for as few measurements as possible, to keep it simple. An organized approach to dosimetry selection is required, which shifts from mechanistic measurements in pre-clinical and early phase I trials, towards just those essential dose limiting measurements and a focus on possible surrogate measures in phase II/III trials. This essential and surrogate approach to dosimetry should help successful adoption of clinical PDT if successful. The examples of essential dosimetry points and surrogate dosimetry tools which might be implemented in phase II and higher trials are discussed for solid tissue PDT with verteporfin and skin lesion treatment with aminolevulinc acid. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only