Dangerous dark spots
Posted Monday, June 01, 2009
Your dermatologist may treat actinic keratosis—medium to dark spots which should be treated before potentially developing into squamous cell skin cancer—with a prescription topical cream, like Aldara (also known as imiquimod). It treats both visible keratoses and undeveloped ones by stimulating your immune system to help your body fight skin diseases.
Even if you start to notice that all of your actinic keratosis symptoms have disappeared, you should continue the full 16 weeks of a treatment. The prescription should be used once a day for two days a week, three or four days apart, and should be left on the skin for about eight hours before being washed off.
Keep in mind that you may experience some redness, swelling, itching or scabbing during treatment, which is normal. But after using the medicine for the full treatment course, your actinic keratosis should barely be visible.
Tags: actinic keratosis, Aldara, cancer, imiquimod, medication, prescription, side effects, skin cancer