Welcome to Dougherty's Journal

The description of how PDT developed at Roswll Park Cancer Institute starts with the 02/19/08 entry at the end.

Our Photodynamic Therapy (PDT)Center recently received our 4th Program Project grant(PO1 grant) from the National Institutes Of Health,National Cancer Institute Division. These grants are special types of grants involving several departments here as well as outside institutions,and includes numerous researchers and support staff,all working together on a single topic,PDT in our case. We have biologists,chemists,laser specialists,immunologists (PDT actually induces an immune response which may be helping wipe out the cancers )and importantly clinical staff.
The grants run for 5 years and then we must again compete for a continuation in what is an increasingly competitive time -funds are always short and NIH funds only a small fraction of grants submitted to it-maybe 10-15%.The total funding we have received beginning with the first one now exceeds $40mil. These funds have allowed us to study the mechanisms involved in PDT, which we have found to be much more complicated than we ever imagined ( which actually makes it more fun!)and more importantly to expand our clinical trials both within the institute and to cancer centers in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. With the expansion of PDT to China and India noted previously we are reaching many more patients who can benefit from this unique treatment.