Abstract: Traditional tumor treatments face challenges such as high recurrence rates, significant adverse reactions, and insufficient therapeutic targeting. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), as emerging localized tumor treatment strategies, have garnered widespread attention for their non-invasive nature, high selectivity, and controllable spatiotemporal characteristics. PDT utilizes photosensitizers to generate reactive oxygen species that kill tumor cells under specific wavelength laser irradiation, while PTT employs photothermals to convert light energy into heat, achieving localized thermal ablation of tumor tissue. Both therapies can induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) in tumor cells, stimulating anti-tumor immune responses. However, within the complex immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, these therapies alone struggle to achieve sustained therapeutic outcomes. In recent years, the combination of PDT/PTT with immunotherapy has emerged as a research hotspot, offering synergistic activation of the immune system to enhance antitumor efficacy. This review summarizes the antitumor mechanisms of PDT and PTT, their immunological effects, and synergistic strategies with immunotherapy, while exploring their developmental prospects in cancer treatment.