Temoporfin mediated photodynamic therapy in patients with local persistent and recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinoma after curative radiotherapy: a feasibility study.

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: 0.15 mg/kg Foscan; 96 h drug-light interval; B: drug dose of 0.10 mg/, 48 h drug-light interval; C: drug dose of 0.075 mg/kg, 24 h 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.