A personal observation of Laser Helsinki 23rd-24th August 2008,
by K. Moghissi MD, FRCS, FETCS

The 2-day congress of the 13th International Congress of the European Medical Laser Association (EMLA) in conjunction with EMLA Finland, Medical Acupuncture and Laser (MAL) and American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) was held at the Paasitorni Congress Centre in Helsinki.
A clear sky and the clean air of Helsinki greeted over 300 delegates from Europe, North America, Israel and other parts of the world, as far away as Korea, who attended this international conference. In addition there were pre- and post-conference courses with almost 150 attendees. Though multinational the conference was, in terms of number of delegates and presentations, dominated by the clinicians and scientists from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other Russian speaking countries, necessitating simultaneous translation of the presentations, a daunting task for Dr. Anu Makela the President of the EMLA and for the organisers. For this alone the organising committee headed by Dr. Levon Gasparyan should be congratulated, since to plan and execute a simultaneous translation for a tightly scheduled conference with parallel sessions requires an almost a Houdini like performance by the translators.

The 138 presentation (118 oral and 20 posters) were packed into 2 days with papers in many areas related to phototherapy, light emitting diodes (LED), low-level laser therapy (LLLT) standard thermal lasers, photodiagnosis (PD) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) [1].
There were plenary sessions as well as original research and clinical papers. PD and PDT were well catered for with 21 presentations and 4 Posters, covering both science and a range of clinical aspects.

An impressive array of papers on PDT was presented by the Russian speaking groups reflecting important research and clinical activities which are going on in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other eastern European countries about which those who do not read the Russian medical literature know little. The lack of diffusion of both science and clinic of PDT across the frontiers is not unique to Russia and Europe. This is truly regrettable since, at the present state of our knowledge and practice of PDT, we the practitioners could do with co-operation and understanding of one another's research and clinical practice for the benefit of patients across the world

Is it solely the language barrier which is keeping the PDT world in separate "islands" one may ask, or is it political and commercial interests which inhibit the passage of information from one island to another?
Whatever the reasons the fact is that we on this side of the European divide are not aware of the progress in PDPDT in Eastern Europe and I doubt if many PDT workers have knowledge of advances which have been made out there. It is interesting to observe that a consumer across the world has access and can benefit from ordinary every day devices manufactured and produced anywhere on the globe, yet patients can only benefit from PDT devices restricted to a few photo-sensitisers and limited to some light sources approved by the "island's" authorities!!

Devices apart in the case of PDT it seems that there is general alarm regarding what are perceived as unorthodox methods used by the Russian scientists and clinicians. One such method, referred to as systemic PDT, attracted my attention at the conference was a report by Dr. M.A. Kaplan and colleagues from the Medical Radiological Research Centre of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Obninsk, Russia [2]. This consists of slow intra-venous injection of a chlorin-based photo-sensitiser and simultaneous intra-venous illumination using 661 nm laser light (output of 10-20mW for 30-60 min). Systemic PDT was used in 76 patients with advanced metastatic disease who had already had conventional cancer treatment. The objectives were palliation of symptoms, improvement of quality of life and reduction of tumour burden. The authors reported that these objectives were achieved in up to 40% of patients depending on the measured parameters though they admitted that more studies are required to examine influence of systemic PDT on duration of life of patients with metastases. Further studies will evaluate the effectiveness of this method. For now, however, it is premature to condemn all methods which have not received the seal of approval by the "gurus" and one should keep an open mind.

From its initial launch, through its relatively short existence, this journal has tried to inform its readers about the scientific and clinical activities in PDPDT undertakings in different countries of the world. It has affiliated itself with various National and International Institutions and Associations related to Photodynamic Medicine in its broader sense to include photodiagnosis and photodynamic therapy.
As the Editor of PDPDT I encourage our Russian speaking authors and PDT workers whose works are not well exposed outside their country to contribute to this journal. I hope that our reviewers and members of the Editorial Board will be tolerant in respect of the language difficulties of our colleagues who are not fluent in the English language. Experience shows that the language barrier does collapse with persistence, understanding and accommodation. In Laser Helsinki the slight difficulties of the language were amply compensated by the wealth of good papers and enthusiasm of the presenters, the organisers and the audience.

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