Chemopreventative thoughts for photodynamic therapy

The concept of skin cancer prevention with photodynamic therapy has evolved over the past few years to include large surface application of aminolevulinic acid or methyl aminolevulinate followed by light exposure to prevent the development of new lesions. Pre-clinical studies using various mouse models have shown that large surface photodynamic therapy can prevent the appearance of actinic keratoses, squamous cell carcinomas, and basal cell carcinomas. Recent clinical studies also suggest that large surface photodynamic therapy can prevent the development of actinic keratoses and possibly skin cancer.