Abstract: Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new and developing method for cancer t reatment involving the preferential uptake of a photosensitizer by tumor and its subsequent activation by light with appropriate wavelength. Phthalocyanines hav e received increasing attention as photosensitizers for PDT since 1985, so that several works have been focused on this area. This paper gives some relationship s between structures and photodynamic anti-cancer activities of phthalocyanines based on 51 related references. The emphasis is directed to the effects of cent ral ions and ring substitutents and axial ligands on the PDT activities and rela tive physical and chemical properties. The main conclusion is that the amphiphil ic character is the promising factor of phthalocyanines for PDT.

Key words: Phthalocyanine, Photosensitizer for therapy of cancer, Photodynamic therapy, Structure-activity relationship