ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1634448
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Strategies and Advancements in Phototherapy for Enhanced Cancer TreatmentView all 4 articles
Thoracoscopic Photodynamic Therapy for Metastatic Pleural Tumors with Malignant Effusion:An Exploratory Pilot Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The optimal treatment for malignant pleural effusion (MPE) remains controversial. We previously explored the use of minimally invasive medical thoracoscopic thermal ablation [argon plasma coagulation (APC)] to reduce pleural tumors and manage effusion, achieving encouraging results. However, this method has some drawbacks. Methods: We conducted an exploratory pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT), alone or in combination with APC, in the treatment of pleural spread with MPE. Patients with plaque-like lesions received PDT alone with an energy density of 384 J/cm2. Nodular-like and mass-like lesions were treated with APC followed by PDT with energy densities of 480 and 576 J/cm2, respectively. The primary endpoints were the response and time to progression (TTP). The 1-year survival rate and safety were also assessed. Data from the PDT ± APC group were compared with those from the APC group from our previous study. Results: In total, 28 patients with non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) were enrolled. Eight patients underwent PDT alone and 20 patients underwent PDT and APC. At week 6, the overall response rate in the observation group was 82.1% (complete response in 15 cases and partial response in eight cases). At week 12, this rate had increased to 89.3%. The TTP was significantly longer in the PDT ± APC group than in the APC group (median, 20.7 vs. 14.2 months; P = 0.006; HR = 0.35). The 1-year survival rate was 75% (21/28). Conclusion: Medical thoracoscopic PDT ± APC therapy significantly improved TTP relative to APC alone and provided durable local effusion control among NSCLC patients with MPE.
Keywords: Medical thoracoscopy, Photodynamic therapy, Argon Plasma Coagulation, Metastatic pleural tumor, malignant pleural effusion, Non-small cell lung cancer
Received: 19 Jun 2025; Accepted: 12 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mai, He, Tang, Feng and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhonglun Mai, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Ziqing Wu, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.