ENB and Photodynamic Therapy in the Treatment for Early Lung Cancer

Lung cancer is the one the major cause of cancer death all over the world especially in Asia. The prevalence of low dose CT screening has made more patients of lung cancer treated in the early stage. The treatment of choice for of early lung cancer is surgical resection. However, several difficulties exist in surgery for treating early lung cancer. eg. Some presenting as multi-focal lesions, which cannot be completely eradicated by surgical resection. Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB)（superDimension™ Navigation System, super-D ENB) is a novel technique, which uses an image guided localization system to direct steerable bronchoscopic tools to predetermined points within the bronchial tree. This technology allows improved access to peripheral lesions in particular. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been adopted an effective treatment option for the central located lung cancer by using photosensitizer which is focally retained in the tumor leading to tumor-specific abrasion by irradiating with a certain wave-length of light. The most frequently used and commercially available photosensitizer for lung cancer is PDT with Photofrin under 623 nm red light irradiation. For the peripheral lung cancer which cannot be approached by bronchoscopy, interstitial PDT with the aids of CT guided catheter implantation has been adopted. However, there are potential disadvantages of such approach including 1) bleeding or hemothorax during CT-guided catheter implantation; 2) dislodging of the catheter after lung collapse in the procedure; 3) unable to treat other lesion after pneumothorax. In the current proposal, the investigators use ENB in combination with PDT to handle to test the feasibility of super-D ENB guided-PDT to treat small lung cancer which cannot be eradicated through surgical resection.