Special Issue "Photodynamic Therapy in Cancer: Principles, State of the Art, and Future Directions"

Dear Colleagues,

Since its discovery more than 100 years ago, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has become a potent strategy for the treatment of many types of cancer. Studies in recent years have allowed the deciphering of many aspects of cell response to PDT and a shift from the view of PDT as the oxidative stress inducer to understanding the complexity of molecular mechanisms controlling cell death and survival under PDT treatment. Moreover, in the past decade, it has become clear that the efficacy of PDT depends largely on the ability to induce immunogenic cell death that enables the activation of the immune system to induce efficient anticancer immunity with long-lasting immunological memory. This Special Issue aims to gather state-of-the-art research articles and comprehensive reviews focusing on the recent progress in discovering the PDT mechanisms and, based on this knowledge, the development of novel PDT agents, protocols, and strategies. Research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• New PDT agents: on the way to the “ideal” photosensitizer
• Personalized photodynamic therapy
• Targeted systems for photodynamic therapy of cancer
• Nano-based agents and materials for photodynamic therapy of cancer
• Novel approaches in oxygen-boosted photodynamic therapy of cancer
• Combination of PDT with other anticancer treatment strategies
• Photochemistry of PDT-induced damages
• Molecular mechanisms of cell response to the photodynamic therapy of cancer
• Cancer cell death modalities induced by photodynamic therapy
• Immunogenic cell death and photodynamic therapy of cancer
• PDT-driven cancer immunotherapy
• Bystander effects in photodynamic therapy of cancer
• Cancer cells trick to overcome PDT efficiency and how to fight cancer resistance
• Current clinical trials in PDT of cancer

Dr. Dmitri V. Krysko
Dr. Irina V. Balalaeva
Dr. Tatiana A. Mishchenko
Guest Editors

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• anticancer photodynamic therapy
• photosensitizers
• photochemical damage
• nano-drugs
• drug delivery
• PDT-induced cell death modalities
• immunogenic cell death
• tumor hypoxia
• bystander effect
• tumor resistance
• clinical trials in PDT