What Researchers Did
Researchers conducted a prospective non-randomized study comparing photodynamic therapy alone to photodynamic therapy combined with hyperbaric oxygen in 75 patients with carcinoma of the esophagus and the esophago-gastric junction.
What They Found
They found that while both treatments improved stenosis diameter, the combined PDT/hyperbaric oxygen group showed significantly better reductions in dysphagia score (P=0.0064) and tumor length (P=0.0002).
Furthermore, patients receiving combined therapy had a median overall survival of 12 months, significantly longer than the 7 months observed in the PDT-alone group (P=0.0098).
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For Canadian patients with esophageal or esophago-gastric junction cancer, this research suggests that adding hyperbaric oxygen to photodynamic therapy could potentially improve treatment outcomes, including survival and symptom relief.
However, given the study's design, further randomized controlled trials would be needed to confirm these benefits and establish this as a standard treatment option.
Canadian Relevance
This study has no direct Canadian connection as it was conducted in Europe.
Study Limitations
A significant limitation of this study is its prospective non-randomized design, which may introduce bias and limit the generalizability of the findings.