The Yin and Yang of PDT and PTT

Abstract In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang ("dark‐bright," "negative‐positive") describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected and interdependent. This paper provides this perspective on photodynamic and photothermal therapies, with a focus on the treatment of solid tumors. The relative strengths and weaknesses of each modality, both current and emerging, are considered with respect to the underlying biophysics, the required technologies, the biological effects, their translation into clinical practice and the realized or potential clinical outcomes. For each specific clinical application, one or the other modality may be clearly preferred, or both are effectively equivalent in terms of the various scientific/technological/practical/clinical trade‐offs involved. Alternatively, a combination may the best approach. Such combined approaches may be facilitated by the use of multifunctional nanoparticles. It is important to understand the many factors that go into the selection of the optimal approach and the objective of this paper is to provide guidance on this.