Treatment of actinic cheilitis using photodynamic therapy: report of three cases

Actinic cheilitis is a common disease mostly of the lower lip. While actinic cheilitis is usually classified as a pre-cancerous lesion, some authors describe this disease as in situ squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Among several treatment options, the most common is surgical excision, followed by cryotherapy, CO2-laser ablation and topical treatment with 5-fluorouracil, trichloroacetic acid or retinoids (Dufrene and Curlin 1997). Recently, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been introduced as a therapeutical option for epithelial skin tumors, actinic keratoses and superficial basal cell carcinomas (Szeimies and Landth…