NYU Langone Medical Center has begun a clinical trial offering vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy to patients with localized prostate cancer. This novel, minimally invasive procedure uses a light-activated drug to deliver light energy waves by way of laser fibers in order to destroy prostate cancer cells.
"This minimally invasive technique for localized prostate cancer offers the potential to destroy the cancer without making any incision or causing any potentially devastating sexual, urinary or reproductive side-effects," said Samir S. Taneja, MD, The James M. Neissa and Janet Riha Neissa Associate Professor of Urologic Oncology and director of the Division of Urologic Oncology at NYU Langone Medical Center and principal investigator for the national, multi-center clinical trial testing this technology. "This procedure only treats the cancerous part of the prostate gland, similar to how a lumpectomy might be done for breast cancer.
Photodynamic therapy is just one of the many personalized treatment options offered by the Smilow Comprehensive Prostate Cancer Center at NYU Langone Medical Center. The Center offers a wide range of the latest treatment options for prostate cancer including: open or robotic prostatectomy surgery, brachytherapy, external beam radiation therapy, cryotherapy and high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), a focal therapy that uses high-energy sound waves to treat prostate cancer, now also in clinical trials at the medical center.