Imiquimod, an immune-modulating imidazoquinoline compound, has been approved in topical formulation for the treatment of actinic keratoses, superficial basal cell carcinomas, and external genital warts. Its use in the treatment of field cancerization, in particular, has been rapidly evolving. With the recent approval of a new drug application for a new concentration, as well as generic formulat...

OBJECTIVE To compare the repetitive DNA patterns of human actinic keratoses and squamous cell carcinomas to determine the genetic alterations that are associated with malignant transformation. INTRODUCTION Cancer cells are prone to genomic instability, which is often due to DNA polymerase slippage during the replication of repetitive DNA and to mutations in the DNA repair genes. The progressi...

BACKGROUND Clinical diagnosis of actinic keratosis is known to have intra- and inter-observer variability, and there is currently no non-invasive and objective measure to diagnose these lesions. OBJECTIVE The aim of this pilot study was to determine if automatically detecting and circumscribing actinic keratoses in clinical photographs is feasible. METHODS Photographs of the face and dorsal...

Actinic keratosis (AK) is a common, sun-induced, pre-malignant lesion with a strong likelihood of progressing to a malignancy. The reported risk of AK progressing to squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) varies from less than 1% to 20%. Clinically, induration, pain, large size, marked hyperkeratosis, ulceration, bleeding, rapid growth, and recurrence or persistence may be markers of AK progression into...

Actinic keratoses are premalignant lesions of the skin caused by excessive sun exposure. Lesions may become mainly squamous cell carcinoma. Cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen is one of the main treatments. In order to evaluate the response of actinic keratosis to cryotherapy by histopathology, two lesions were selected in each of 14 patients with multiple actinic keratoses. In one lesion a biopsy...

Chronic oral breathing is characterized by respiratory and anatomic alterations found in children who breathe through their mouth only. Through open-mouth breathing, these patients develop anatomic deformities such as a typical adenoid facies. Such anatomic alterations make the lower lip of these patients more prone to UV action and its related actinic damage. This paper discusses an 11-year-ol...

Although lichen planus and vitiligo are common skin disorders, their association with two other uncommon diseases, i.e. lichen sclerosus et atrophicus and disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis, seems to be a very rare occurrence. We report herein a 70-year-old man who developed all of these four skin disorders simultaneously.