Photodynamic therapy has the potential to become an effective alternate to surgery for the treatment of cancer. In recent years, there has been a focus on identifying more effective and less toxic photosentisizers for use in photodynamic therapy. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of mitoxantrone, a chemotherapeutic agent, as a photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy in the MCF-7 human breast cancer cell line. Cytotoxicity was evaluated for different concentrations of mitoxantrone, and photosensitivity was assessed using a non-coherent light source. The percentage of the cell survival after 24 h was investigated using the MTT assay. Overall, the results showed that mitoxantrone is a remarkably efficient photosensitizer that could mediate MCF-7 cell death at a low concentration (5 μM) with modest exposure to light. It is surprising to find that a chemotherapeutic agent can be an effective photosensitizer for PDT in vitro.
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