PDT and antitumor immunity: the beginnings of the story

This mini-review reports a brief description of the first experiments conducted by Canti's group on the role of photodynamic therapy in generating immunity against cancer. It highlights for the first time the effective role of PDT in the induction of anti-tumor T lymphocytes and shows that this effect is tumor-specific. It has also been reported how this adoptive immunity can improve the efficacy of chemotherapy. These studies have helped to open an important new field of scientific research on the role of PDT-generated immunity and to stimulate today's important new pre-clinical approaches.