Addressing the Challenges of Treating Actinic Keratosis

Actinic keratosis (AK) represents one of the most common diagnoses in our dermatology practices. The incidence of AK lesions continues to rise, along with that of non-melanoma skin cancers. Numerous risk factors have now been implicated, including chronic sun exposure, history of sunburns, fair skin, advanced age, male gender, and immunosuppression. Although an individual lesion’s likelihood of progression to malignancy remains very low, AKs seldom occur in isolation. Indeed, the condition can most accurately be described as a “field disease”, with a mix of clinical and subclinical lesions present in the same region. Studies have shown that the majority of squamous cell carcinomas arise in sites of pre-existing AKs, highlighting the importance of diagnosis and appropriate management.