Pulsed Dye Laser-mediated Photodynamic Therapy is Less Effective than Conventional Photodynamic Therapy for Actinic Field Cancerization: A Randomized Half-side Comparative Study.

In this study, 60 patients with 2 or more actinic keratoses randomly received either of these treatments on each side of the head. A physician blinded to the treatment evaluated treatment response at 6 months for each lesion, as completely, partially or not healed. Significantly lower complete clearance rates (10.3% vs 44.9%) and lesion-specific complete clearance rates were found for pulsed dye laser-mediated photodynamic therapy (47.9%) vs conventional red-light photodynamic therapy (73.4%). Significantly lower pain scores were found for pulsed dye laser-mediated photodynamic therapy, with a mean numerical rating of 2.3, compared with 4.1 for conventional red-light photodynamic therapy. The study population averaged 7.9 lesions, and 78% of patients had been treat-ed previously for actinic keratoses on the treatment area. To conclude, in a population with severe sun damage, pulsed dye laser-mediated photodynamic therapy seems less effective than conventional red-light photo-dynamic therapy. Pulsed dye laser-mediated photodynamic therapy may still be a treatment option for patients who are not compliant with conventional red-light photodynamic therapy. PMID: 33491093 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Acta Dermato-Venereologica - Category: Dermatology Authors: Tags: Acta Derm Venereol Source Type: research