Photodynamic therapy: optical science and technology for light activated drugs in medicine

Summary form only given. While the concept of using light-activated drugs for medical therapeutics has been investigated actively over the last 20 years, and photodynamic therapy has now been approved as a clinical procedure for various forms of cancer in different countries, the last few years have seen major advances, both in the understanding of the photophysical/photochemical/photobiological processes involved and in the availability of clinically-viable technologies for light generation and delivery and for in vivo dosimetry of this form of treatment. Scientific and technological advances in these fields are discussed.