ReviewBritish journal of cancer2019
In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present-why do cancers fluoresce with 5-aminolaevulinic acid?
Review in British journal of cancer, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Beyond chemotherapy: the evolving role of photodynamic therapy in triple-negative breast cancer.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2026Review
- More than a ring: the emerging role of heme in angiogenesis.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- 5-ALA in Oncology: Current Clinical Applications, Biological Limitations, and Emerging Translational Strategies.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Stabilization of 5-aminolevulinic acid by cucurbit[7]uril complex with enhanced fluorescence detection and photodynamic therapy of breast cancer in vitro and in a CAM model.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2026Article
- A Novel Fluorescence-Triggered Auditory Feedback Photosensor for Precision Lymph Node Mapping.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploiting porphyrin metabolism to inhibit angiogenesis.Angiogenesis · 2026Article
- Label-free fluorescence lifetime imaging can distinguish cancer from healthy tissue in spontaneously occurring canine oral tumors.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Integrating mass spectrometry and hyperspectral imaging for protoporphyrin IX detection in malignant glioma tissue.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Imaging of porphyrin-specific fluorescence in pathogenic bacteria in vitro using a wearable, hands-free system.Journal of microbiological methods · 2025Article
- Hemin Promotes Higher Effectiveness of Aminolevulinic-Photodynamic Therapy (ALA-PDT) in A549 Lung Cancer Cell Line by Interrupting ABCG2 Expression.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Towards machine learning-based quantitative hyperspectral image guidance for brain tumor resection.Communications medicine · 2024Article
- Porphyrin overdrive rewires cancer cell metabolism.Life science alliance · 2024Article
- Protoporphyrin IX in serum of high-grade glioma patients: A novel target for disease monitoring via liquid biopsy.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Current Photodynamic Therapy for Glioma Treatment: An Update.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Development and optimisation of in vitro sonodynamic therapy for glioblastoma.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Proton-Coupled Oligopeptide Transport (Slc15) in the Brain: Past and Future Research.Pharmaceutical research · 2023Review
- Photodynamic Therapy for Glioblastoma: Illuminating the Path toward Clinical Applicability.Cancers · 2023Review
- Metal-Organic Layer Delivers 5-Aminolevulinic Acid and Porphyrin for Dual-Organelle-Targeted Photodynamic Therapy.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2023Article
- Challenges in, and recommendations for, hyperspectral imaging in ex vivo malignant glioma biopsy measurements.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Photodynamic Therapy for Bladder Cancers, A Focused ReviewPhotochemistry and photobiology · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Photodynamic diagnosis and therapy have emerged as a promising tool in oncology. Using the visible fluorescence from photosensitisers excited by light, clinicians can both identify and treat tumour cells in situ. Protoporphyrin IX, produced in the penultimate step of the haem synthesis pathway, is a naturally occurring photosensitiser that visibly fluoresces when exposed to light. This fluorescence is enhanced considerably by the exogenous administration of the substrate 5-aminolaevulinic acid (5-ALA). Significantly, 5-ALA-induced protoporphyrin IX accumulates preferentially in cancer cells, and this enhanced fluorescence has been harnessed for the detection and photodynamic treatment of brain, skin and bladder tumours. However, surprisingly little is known about the mechanistic basis for this phenomenon. This review focuses on alterations in the haem pathway in cancer and considers the unique features of the cancer environment, such as altered glucose metabolism, oncogenic mutations and hypoxia, and their potential effects on the protoporphyrin IX phenomenon. A better understanding of why cancer cells fluoresce with 5-ALA would improve its use in cancer diagnostics and therapies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.