Abstract: Malignant tumors have become the leading cause of human death. Conventional anticancer treatment modalities， such as surgery， radiation and chemotherapy， are often deleterious to the patient due to the numerous associated side effects. Photodynamic therapy（PDT） as a new approach available to cancer therapy， with its unique targeting and nondrug resistance， caused more and more attention of scholars. Previous studies have shown that PDT destructed tumor by a variety of mechanisms. In addition to the known mechanism of necrosis and apoptosis， inflammatory reaction after PDT can also indirectly help the removal of tumor cells. Hypoxiainducible factor-1alpha（HIF-1α） is a nucleoprotein with transcriptional activity， possessing a wide spectrum of target genes（such as hypoxia adaptation， inflammation development and tumor growth）， which include vascular endothelial growth factor（VEGF）， one of the most important genes in promoting vascularization. In this review， we discuss the role of HIF-1α in the PDT of tumor cells.