Individualization of interstitial photodynamic therapy for malignant gliomas

Interstitial photodynamic therapy (iPDT) is currently being investigated as a light-based treatment option for highly malignant brain tumours (glioblastomas/GBM). To obtain a sufficient irradiation of the tumour, quantitative knowledge about the light propagation in the tissue is required for the light dosimetry calculations underlying the clinical treatment planning. To individualize the light dosimetry calculations, the optical properties of the irradiated tissue need to be determined in-vivo. A novel approach for this purpose is based on the direction-resolved light detection within the tissue, using a rotating optical side-view probe. During measurement, the tissue is irradiated via a separate interstitially placed light applicator, and from the angular dependence of the recorded signal the optical tissue properties are calculated, based on a solution of the radiative transfer equation (RTE). Measurements were performed on liquid tissue phantoms and biological tissue samples. As a result, an over- and underestimation of the calculated optical absorption and scattering coefficients may arise in some situations, but the effective attenuation coefficient remains largely unaffected and corresponds well with literature values.