Influence of treatment-induced changes in tissue absorption on treatment volume during interstitial photodynamic therapy

Interstitial photodynamic therapy on thick skin lesions has been shown to induce changes in tissue light transmission as a direct consequence of variations in total blood volume and oxygen saturation. A finite element method was used in order to simulate the fluence rate distribution and total light dose throughout the target tissue for two cases. The first case constitutes a pre-treatment model where the tissue optical properties are assumed constant during the entire treatment. The second situation takes into account observed changes in tissue light transmission, small deviations in fiber insertion depth and a few cases of almost complete loss of source fiber output power possibly as a result of blood accumulation in front of the fiber tip. The pre- and post-treatment models from six clinical treatments are compared in terms of simulated treatment volumes. We conclude that real-time monitoring of the delivered fluence is necessary in order to ascertain a pre-determined light dose to the target tissue. Finally, we speculate on how to also include the sensitizer fluorescence level and tissue oxygenation in the real-time treatment feedback.