[Photodynamic therapy. A new method for the treatment of cancer]

This therapy is best understood as light activated chemotherapy. The chemotherapeutic agents, so-called photosensitizers, are relatively harmless without light. The photosensitizer is given systemically and is concentrated or retained in malignant tissue, the activating light is applied locally. The therapy is approved in The United States of America, Canada, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Japan for treatment of certain malignancies. An approval is pending at The Danish National Board of Health. Photodynamic therapy is potentially curative for many superficial or luminal tumours, and can eradicate micrometastases in the tumour bed.