Photodynamic therapy with photofrin II derivative in the treatment of carcinosarcoma of rats with diabetes mellitus

Four batches of Wistar rats with Walker-256 carcinosarcoma were used to test the effects of PDT upon `in vivo' tumor growth. Ten days after tumor transplantation, rats from batch I(DM) were exposed to Photofrin II (20 mg/kg), given i.p. 24 h before exposure to laser (632.8 nm; 10 mw; He-Ne laser), five doses given at 4 days intervals; batch II and batch III received sole treatment (DM or PDT). The control batch IV included animals with untreated Walker-256 tumors. The animals were followed up 42 days.