{"entity":{"id":"hexaminolevulinate","kind":"drug","name":"Hexaminolevulinate","aka":["HAL","Hexyl aminolevulinate"],"tldr":"Hexaminolevulinate makes bladder tumours fluoresce red under blue light so the urologist can see and remove flat and tiny cancers that white-light cystoscopy misses.","summary":"Instilled into the bladder an hour before cystoscopy, hexaminolevulinate is taken up preferentially by neoplastic urothelium and converted to protoporphyrin IX. The FDA approved it in May 2010 (Cysview) as an adjunct to white-light cystoscopy for detecting non-muscle-invasive papillary bladder cancer, after trials showed it found additional Ta and T1 tumours and carcinoma in situ in a meaningful share of patients; it has been marketed in Europe as Hexvix since 2005. Blue-light cystoscopy with hexaminolevulinate reduces early recurrence after resection in meta-analyses and is recommended in European and American guidelines for suspected carcinoma in situ.","status":"established","asOf":"2026-09-08","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexaminolevulinate","links":[{"label":"Drugs@FDA NDA022555","url":"https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf/index.cfm?event=overview.process&ApplNo=022555"},{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexaminolevulinate"}],"tags":["gap-fill","chembl-universe"],"related":[],"cancers":["urothelial"],"sections":[],"technologies":["sentinel-node"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":["photocure"],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"notes":[],"brand":"Cysview / Hexvix","modality":"Optical imaging agent instilled into the bladder","mechanism":"A lipophilic ester of aminolevulinic acid that tumour cells convert to fluorescent protoporphyrin IX; under blue light at cystoscopy, bladder tumours glow red against normal urothelium.","approvals":[{"region":"US","year":2010,"indication":"Cystoscopic detection of non-muscle-invasive papillary bladder cancer, with blue-light cystoscopy"}],"mechanismSteps":[],"toxicity":[],"access":[],"regulatoryEvents":[]},"route":"/drugs/hexaminolevulinate/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"urothelial","kind":"cancer","name":"Bladder & urothelial cancer","route":"/cancers/urothelial/"}],"technology":[{"id":"sentinel-node","kind":"technology","name":"Sentinel lymph node biopsy","route":"/technologies/sentinel-node/"}],"company":[{"id":"photocure","kind":"company","name":"Photocure","route":"/companies/photocure/"}]}}