Patients with recurrent gynaecological
carcinomas have a poor prognosis, with a survival of a few months. Three patients with a recurrent vulva
carcinoma, one patient with a recurrent cervical
carcinoma, one patient with a recurrent
endometrial carcinoma, and one patient with a recurrent
breast carcinoma underwent
PDT after parenteral or topical sensitisation with
Photosan 3. From these patients, two of them showed a complete response with no evidence of disease for 32 and 29 months. One patient responded partially with two recurrences, which were treated twice after tropical sensitisation, living now 21 months. The remaining three patients showed partial response and died 3 to 8 months after
PDT. The energy applied was derived from an
argon-
dye-laser ranging between 225 and 750 joule/cm2.
Photosan 3 was given intravenously at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg
body weight and was tolerated without any
allergic reaction. The response rate in three of six patients in recurrent gynaecological
malignancies encourages us to pursue
PDT in gynaecological disease.