Blue Light Procedure For Skin Cancer

The kind of light used depends on the type of cancer and where it is located in the body.
Blue light procedure for skin cancer. Photodynamic or blue light therapy at university of iowa hospitals clinics is helping dermatologists ward off skin cancer in patients with actinic keratoses. Blue light treatment is a non invasive procedure. Your dermatologist will apply a chemical solution to the affected areas and subsequently expose that same area to blue light. Pdt is usually done as an outpatient procedure meaning you won t have to stay in the hospital but is sometimes combined with surgery chemotherapy or other anti cancer drugs or radiation therapy.
Sun exposure tanning beds depressed immune system radiation exposure and certain viral infections are risk factors for skin cancer. Blue light therapy is an fda approved non invasive phototherapy treatment for acne. Your doctor will focus a special blue or red light onto the area of. Photosensitizers are activated by a specific wavelength of light energy usually from a laser.
Blue light therapy treatment is usually a very quick process and is almost always done as an outpatient procedure. Studies suggest that it can improve but. Light in the blue wavelength is used to kill acne causing bacteria. 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.
Photodynamic therapy pdt is a two stage treatment that combines light energy with a drug photosensitizer designed to destroy cancerous and precancerous cells after light activation. The exception to this may be photodynamic therapy on high risk areas for cancer. Photodynamic therapy for skin cancer. The photosensitizer is nontoxic until it is activated by light.
Also known as solar keratoses these scaly bumps range in size from pinhead to one inch and appear primarily in sun exposed areas on the face ears head lips forearms and back of. The most common types of skin cancer basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are highly curable when they are diagnosed and treated early. The reaction from the chemicals oxygen and the blue light is what destroys the precancerous or cancerous skin cells. Skin cancers are treated with surgery or radiation.