Hexaminolevulinate-mediated photodynamic purging of marrow grafts with murine breast carcinoma

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) with porphyrin precursors is an established therapy for certain tumors. This study aimed to explore the use of hexaminolevulinate (HAL), a porphyrin precursor, for photodynamic purging of BM grafts contaminated with cells of the 4T1 breast carcinoma cell line. The optimal PDT dose was not effective in eradicating 4T1 cells when the tumor cells were mixed with murine marrow cells in vitro. However, the number of pulmonary metastases was reduced, and the survival of experimental animals was prolonged substantially when they were subjected to TBI followed by transplantation of syngeneic BM containing metastasized 4T1 cells that had been treated ex vivo by HAL-PDT. Despite the failure of in vitro experiments, HAL-based photodynamic purging could be a useful modality for treating animals bearing an experimental breast carcinoma.