In treating actinic keratoses, he reserves PDT for patients with numerous lesions over a large field.
"It does work, but it’s a lot of effort. So if you’re just going after a handful of [actinic keratoses] do you need PDT? Probably not," Dr. Garden said.
Ending on an encouraging note, the dermatologist pointed to the ongoing substantial research commitment to PDT as very promising. Finding more specific photosensitizers is a priority. And ablative fractional laser-assisted delivery of the standard photosensitizer methyl aminolevulinic acid appears to be "an exciting development," in Dr. Garden’s view, although to date the work is limited to animal studies.
Dr. Garden reported having financial relationships with Alma, Candela & Syneron, and Palomar/Cynosure.
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