Whole bladder wall photoradiation therapy for carcinoma in situ of the bladder: a preliminary report.

Whole bladder wall photoradiation therapy, using a hematoporphyrin derivative as a sensitizer, the red light (wavelength 630 plus or minus 1.6 nm.) of an argon dye laser as the source of excitation energy and a motor driven laser light scattering optic, was performed in 2 patients with multicentric carcinoma in situ of the bladder. The total light dose was 10 J. per cm.2. Acute vesical inflammatory changes developed in the bladder wall lining, associated with a reduction of bladder capacity, which, however, disappeared within 3 months after photoradiation therapy. The anticancer effect of photoradiation therapy was followed by urinary cytologic and cystoscopic examinations for 4 months. Occasional discharges of clusters of vacuolated cancer cells or sheets of vesical detached cells in the urine were observed for 2 weeks after photoradiation therapy but, thereafter, repeat urinary cytologic and cystoscopic examinations revealed no malignancy.