Tips For Treating Severe Sun Damage

Treating severely sun-damaged patients’ individual lesions with cryotherapy alone is unlikely to lead to optimal outcomes. That’s because of a concept called field cancerization, which suggests that cancer does not arise as an isolated cellular phenomenon, but rather as an anaplastic tendency involving many cells simultaneously, according to Anokhi Jambusaria, M.D., M.S.C.E., staff dermatologist, Baylor Scott and White Health, Round Rock, Texas.
“In other words, some skin cancers are not happening as an isolated occurrence, but in a background of severely sun-damaged skin,” according to Dr. Jambusaria, who presented on the topic of extreme dermatoheliosis in July at the American Academy of Dermatology’s (AAD’s) Summer Meeting in Boston, Mass.
“The presence of field cancerization represents a high-risk population with subclinical invisible disease, multiple primary tumors and premalignant change. Oftentimes, they need multiple and repeated treatments, leading to significant morbidity. Treatment of patients with field cancerization, therefore, should involve targeting the entire area, not just the individual tumor.”
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