You may feel stinging or burning while this is done.
Blue light for skin cancer treatment.
More commonly known as photodynamic therapy pdt blue light therapy works often as well as surgery or radiation therapy.
It can actually be used to prevent skin cancer and remove both precancerous skin.
It s used to treat actinic keratosis ak a skin condition that can become cancer and is used only on the face or scalp.
Pdt using levulan and a proprietary blue light is currently fda approved for the treatment of early skin precancers called actinic keratoses rough scaly spots generally on sun exposed skin.
Plus it doesn t cause awful side effects.
Pdt is also known as ala pdt treatment or super blue light.
In 2014 in the journal pigment cell melanoma research researchers compared skin exposed to blue light with skin exposed to uvb rays the type of ultraviolet light that s most closely associated.
Blue light therapy is most commonly used to treat sun damage and premalignant or malignant skin cancer growths.
During the next stage of this treatment your doctor will focus a special blue or red light onto the area of your cancer for about 15 minutes.
Your dermatologist will apply a chemical solution to the affected areas and subsequently expose that same area to blue light.
27 2014 healthday news treating pre cancerous skin spots with a type of light therapy may be more effective than the usual therapy freezing the lesions with liquid.
A relatively easy procedure blue light therapy has successfully treated multiple conditions including cancer actinic keratosis a type of superficial skin cancer and acne.
During the treatment we apply a topical photosensitizing drug to the skin.
Researchers are always looking for new pdt drugs and new ways to give them.
Insurances typically cover the full cost of the treatment but this varies by insurance.
Blue light therapy for actinic keratosis can help treat and reduce the number of precancers potentially reducing the number of full fledged skin cancers and helping in photo rejuvenation.
The reaction from the chemicals oxygen and the blue light is what destroys the precancerous or cancerous skin cells.