Photodynamic therapy for superficial bladder cancer.

In photodynamic therapy, a photosensitizing drug is activated by visible light and in the presence of oxygen, results in local cell death. This evolving modality is now being used to treat and palliate a very wide variety of human solid tumors and carcinoma-in-situ lesions. With regard to bladder cancer, advances in drug development and modern light delivery techniques mean that photodynamic therapy shows promise in the treatment of superficial bladder cancer resistant to conventional treatments.