Enhancement of blood porphyrin emission intensity with aminolevulinic acid administration: a new concept for photodynamic diagnosis of early prostate cancer.

Background: The objective of this paper was to verify if the oral administration of δ-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) in animals with prostate tumor can increase the sensitivity of cancer diagnosis by protoporphyrin IX blood autofluorescence. In this study, the autofluorescence of blood porphyrin was analyzed using fluorescence spectroscopy on healthy male NUDE mice and in those with prostate cancer induced by the inoculation of DU145 cells.

Methods: A total of 18 male NUDE mice, ∼8 weeks old on arrival were divided into 3 groups: Control, Tumor and ALA Tumor.