Whether in the hospital or the laboratory, fighting HCC – one of the most aggressive forms of liver cancer – takes a team. Hepatocellular carcinoma currently stands as the fifth-most prevalent cancer in the world, according to Virginia Commonwealth University researchers in a study published in the Journal of Cancer Metastasis and Treatment this year.

Yet with research there is promise for new approaches, and a new one out of VCU has potential to treat the disease. Researchers at the VCU Health Hume-Lee Transplant Center are studying the use of targeted photodynamic therapy to treat HCC.

Here’s how the targeted PDT works: First, patients are injected with a well-known photosensitizer that has been repurposed for treatment, where it selectively accumulates in cancerous liver cells. Then, when exposed to a specific wavelength of light, the cancer cells die while leaving the healthy tissue unharmed.

Read more at VCU News...