title: MAL-PDT for difficult to treat nonmelanoma skin cancer.
abstract: With an incidence of over 3.5 million nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) per year in the United States, there is an increasing need for effective, cost-effective treatments for NMSC. When surgical excision is impractical or not feasible, methyl aminolevulinate photodynamic therapy (MAL-PDT) has demonstrated consistently high long-term cure rates ranging from 70-90%, with superior cosmetic outcomes compared with other treatment modalities. With the exception of invasive squamous cell carcinoma, MAL-PDT has been successful in treating all types of NMSC, especially in patients with multiple comorbidities, field cancerization, and lesions in cosmetically sensitive locations. Herein, a step-by-step description of the procedure for MAL-PDT is provided, followed by a review of outcomes from large clinical trials performed over the past 15 years for each variant of NMSC. After reading this review, clinicians should have a thorough understanding of the benefits and limits of MAL-PDT, and should be able to add this valuable procedure to their armamentarium of therapies for NMSC.
authors.affiliation: The Laser and Skin Surgery Center of Indiana, Carmel, Indiana 46032, USA.
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Stebbins
authors.forename: C William
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Hanke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002280:Basal Cell Carcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: C475457:methyl 5-aminolevulinate; D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid