A spin-off of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), Buffalo NY., Photolitec, LLC, is a life-sciences company at developing - under licenecs from Roswell - photosensitizing compounds used in photodynamic therapy (PDT). PDT is an innovative cancer treatment pioneered by Roswell Park personnel. PDT is a treatment used for skin, lung, head-and-neck and esophageal cancers, as well as other non-oncological medical conditions. In this therapy, a photosensitive compound is applied directly to the skin or injected intravenously. While healthy cells shed the drugs within a few days, the agents remain heavily concentrated in cancer cells. The tumor is then exposed to an appropriate wavelength of a laser light, which produces a cytotoxic agent within the tumor, causing selective destruction of the cancer cells. The compounds developed by the founders effectively could be judged the next generation of PDT agents with imaging capability - ssociated with only limited skin phototoxicity, a major limitation of most PDT compounds including Photofrin, the standard agent used in PDT. PDT was not at the time (2010) used for treating large or deep-seated tumors of the body; however, the developers judged that long-wavelength-absorbing compounds c/would help to image and treat deeply-seated tumors. Having the ability to image tumors through fluorescence and/or nuclear (PET) imaging offered the see and treat approach. The drug compounds that collect in cancerous cells work as markers for nuclear imaging, optical imaging or MRI prior to PDT treatment or surgery, or to monitor cancer treatment results,
