Patent ID: 8328785

Claim:
A method for treating tumors in animals, including humans, by photo-dynamic therapy comprising the step of: administering an effective amount of nano-particles to a target site of an animal, where the target site includes a cancerous growth and/or tumor, administering a photo effective amount of a photosensitizer molecule to the target site, and applying ionizing radiation from a radiation source to the target site, where the two administering steps can be performed collectively or separately, where the nano-particles are independent of the photosensitizer, where the ionizing radiation has an energy sufficient to generate energetic electrons in the target site, where the nano-particles are capable of absorbing a portion of the generated electrons in a cathodoluminescence process and have a bandgap value sufficient to convert a portion of the absorbed electrons into photons having a frequency range corresponding to an absorption frequency range of the photosensitizer molecules, and where the photosensitizer molecules absorb a portion of the photons activating oxygen to form oxygen radicals capable of producing a localized photodynamic therapeutic affect reducing a number of cancer cells or reducing a size of the tumor.