Actinic keratoses are benign intraepithelial skin neoplasms constituted by atypical proliferation of keratinocytes that may evolve to squamous cell carcinoma. They develop in photoexposed skin areas; they are induced mainly by ultraviolet radiation and are considered cutaneous markers of chronic exposure to sunlight. They develop mainly in adults and older, fair skinned individuals, and are the...

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging treatment modality for various diseases, especially for cancer therapy. Although high efficacy is demonstrated for PDT using standardized protocols in nonhyperkeratotic actinic keratoses, alternative light doses expected to increase efficiency, to reduce adverse effects or to expand the use of PDT, are still being evaluated and refined. We propose a com...

BACKGROUND Actinic keratosis is a frequent lesion which occurs in sunlight exposed areas. Diclofenac sodium and 5-Fluorouracil are effective, non-invasive and easy-to-apply topical treatment options. OBJECTIVES To assess and compare the effectiveness of 3% diclofenac sodium associated with 2.5% hyaluronic acid and of 5% 5-Fluorouracil for the treatment of actinic keratosis, as well as the pat...

BACKGROUND Actinic keratosis (AK) is a common skin condition that may progress to non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). The disease may influence Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), but studies of HRQoL in patients with AK are limited. The purpose of the study was to analyze HRQoL in patients with different severity levels of AK treated in dermatology specialist care using generic and disease-sp...

It is widely accepted that elastotic changes of the skin are primarily an indicator of cumulative sun exposure of the dermis and are a characteristic finding of actinic keratoses. To date, there have been few reports that measure the amount of elastic tissue objectively and quantitatively, especially in actinic keratoses. The computerized image analysis method has proved useful recently in dete...

Epidermal cells are the first cells to be exposed to environmental genotoxic agents such as ultraviolet and ionizing radiations, which induce DNA double strand breaks (DSB) and activate DNA damage response (DDR) to maintain genomic integrity. Defective DDR can result in genomic instability (GIN) which is considered to be a central aspect of any carcinogenic process. P53-binding protein 1 (53BP1...

Precancerous lesions and skin cancer are infrequent in Asians, and have received little documentation in the literature. Brazil has the world’s largest contingent of Japanese immigrants and their descendants, and 70% live in the State of São Paulo. The prevalence of such skin lesions in Japanese-Brazilians is unknown. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of actinic keratoses and non-melano...