Patent ID: 7070611

Claim:
A method of performing a photodynamic therapy at a treatment field, said method comprising the steps of: providing a photosensitive material to the treatment field; providing a flexible polymer patch element having a treatment surface and an opposite surface displaced a patch thickness away from the treatment surface, said patch element having a light block layer on the treatment surface and a light reflective layer on the opposite surface; emitting light from a plurality of light emitting members disposed within the patch element between the light blocking layer and the light reflective layer with at least a portion of the patch element being between the plurality of light emitting members and the light block layer and at least another portion of the patch element being between the plurality of light emitting members and the light reflective layer; applying the patch element at the treatment field, said treatment surface conforming to a surface of a tissue field; directly passing at least some of the emitted light to the treatment field through a thickness of the flexible polymer patch which is substantially less than a local thickness of the patch element; reflecting at least some of the emitted light off the light reflective layer and back towards the treatment surface, said reflected light passing through an effective thickness of the flexible polymer patch which is substantially greater than the local thickness of the patch element and as a result said reflected light being more diffused relative to the light passing directly to the treatment surface; and blocking at least some of the emitted light with the light blocking layer, together the passed light and the reflected light providing a light dosage rate to the treatment field of between 0 mw/cm 2 to about 150 mw/cm 2 .