Patent ID: 6914078

Claim:
A method of selectively killing cancer cells or selectively inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, comprising: (a) contacting a mixture comprising cancerous cells and non-cancerous cells with an effective amount of at least one compound having a structure represented by Formula I or Formula II: or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, wherein each R and R′ is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen atoms and substituted or unsubstituted C 1 -C 6 linear or branched alkyl groups, further wherein each X is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and halogen atoms, and still further wherein for compounds having the structure of Formula I, at least one X in the compound is a halogen atom; and (b) exposing the mixture comprising the cancerous cells and the non-cancerous cells from (a) to light of a suitable wavelength to photoactivate the at least one compound, wherein the cancerous cells are characterized in that the photoactivated compound exhibits selective phototoxicity toward the cancerous cells over the non-cancerous cells.