Skin Resurfacing May Reduce Risk of Skin Cancer

NEW YORK AUG 25, 2006 (Reuters Health) - Facial resurfacing by three common methods reduces the incidence of actinic keratoses and provides prophylaxis against cutaneous malignancies, results of a small, prospective study suggest.

However, the trichloroacetic acid treatment seemed to be the preferable method to patients.

Dr. Susan M Swetter, from Stanford University Medical Center and colleagues in California compared carbon dioxide laser resurfacing, 30% trichloroacetic acid peel, or 5% fluorouracil cream applied twice daily for 3 weeks.  The 34 patients had histories of facial or scalp actinic keratoses or basal or squamous cell carcinoma.

Eight patients completed treatment with fluorouracil, 10 completed treatment with trichloroacetic acid, and 6 underwent carbon dioxide laser resurfacing.  Five of the patients who dropped out of the study served as the untreated control group.  All the patients were reexamined at 3-month intervals.

Dr. Swetter"s group reports in the August issue of the Archives of Dermatology that all three procedures were successful, resulting in an 83% to 92% reduction in actinic keratoses, and lower incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer, and a trend toward longer time to development of new skin cancer.  There were no significant differences in efficacy among the three groups.

However, the patients treated with trichloroacetic acid reported "less discomfort, fewer patient complaints, and faster time to healing," the authors report.

SOURCE:

• Arch Dermatol 2006;142:976-982.