Patent ID: 7354433

Claim:
A method for selectively killing a neoplastic skin lesion in a living organism, where said neoplastic skin lesion is a member selected from the group consisting of dermatofibroma, seborrhoeic keratosis, actinic keratosis, keratoacan thoma, basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, nevus intradermalis, nevus compositus, dysplatic nevus, and lentigo maligna, said method consisting essentially of irradiating at least a portion of said living organism in which said tissue resides with electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is non-ionizing and that is absorbed preferentially by said neoplastic tissue relative to adjacent tissue, said preferential absorption due to spectral differences between (i) proteins and lipids of neoplastic tissue and (ii) proteins and lipids of normal tissue, at a sufficient intensity and for a sufficient duration that said neoplastic tissue is killed by heat generated by said radiation without substantial killing of said adjacent tissue.