Optical properties of tumor tissues grown on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken eggs measured with a double integrating sphere and inverse Monte Carlo method in the wavelength range of 350–1000 nm

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) using 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is an attractive method because of the shorter decay time of photosensitivity compared with PDT using other drugs. However, the optimum conditions to perform ALA-PDT, e.g., drug dose, wavelength, and irradiation dose have never been clarified. To evaluate the effectiveness of PDT using ALA and its dependence on drug dose, wavelength, and irradiation dose in the treatment of tumors, the usefulness of a tumor model prepared with tumor cells grown on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken eggs was studied by measuring the optical properties of the tumor model. The optical properties of tumor model were measured with a double integrating sphere optical setup and inverse Monte Carlo technique in the wavelength range from 350 to 1000 nm. The spectra of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients of the tumor model grown in the chicken eggs were compared with those of the other tumor model grown in mice. The measured optical properties of the tumor model using chicken eggs were similar to those of the tumor model using mice. These results indicate that the tumor model using chicken eggs is a suitable system to investigate the effectiveness of ALA-PDT. This in vivo assay system for tumors has advantages for evaluating antitumor effect of ALA-PDT because of its convenience, rapidity, and inexpensiveness.