Photodynamic therapy utilizes Type II photosensitizers to harvest light to degrade tumors or cancerous masses. This discovery was first observed back in 1907 by Hermann von Tappeiner when he utilized eosin to treat skin tumors. The photodynamic process is predominantly a noninvasive technique wherein the photosensitizers are put inside a patient so that it may accumulate on the tumor or cancer. When the photosensitizer reaches the tumor or cancer, wavelength specific light is shined on the outside of the patients affected area. This light (preferably near infrared frequency as this allows for the penetration of the skin without acute toxicity) excites the photosensitizers electrons into the triplet state. Upon excitation, the photosensitizer begins transferring energy to neighboring ground state triplet oxygen to generate excited singlet oxygen. The resulting excited oxygen species then selectively degrades the tumor or cancerous mass.
In February 2019, medical scientists announced that iridium attached to albumin, creating a photosensitized molecule, can penetrate cancer cells and, after being irradiated with light (a process called photodynamic therapy), destroy the cancer cells.