Recently, indoor daylight photodynamic therapy (idl-PDT) has been developed.

A new study published in The Journal of Dermatological Treatment aimed to compare treatment outcomes of conventional photodynamic therapy (cPDT) with a red LED lamp and idlPDT with a polychromatic white LED lamp in adult patients affected by symmetrical Actinic keratosis (AK) of face and/or scalp.

This was a comparative, intra-patient, split-face, randomized clinical trial that recruited 43 patients. Two contralateral and symmetrical target areas of the face and/or scalp harbouring at least five AK were selected and randomized 1:1, to treatment with cPDT and idlPDT. The AK number and cumulative area were assessed at baseline (T0); efficacy and cosmetic outcome were assessed three months after treatment (T1).

It was observed that the total AK number and area reduced significantly with both, idlPDT and cPDT in comparison to baseline. cPDT was more painful and induced a more severe inflammation, while 70.7% patients gave their overall preference to idlPDT.

From the results, it was inferred that idlPDT can be an alternative treatment protocol to cPDT for in-office treatment of AK patients, with better tolerability and a non-inferior efficacy.

Source: The Journal of Dermatological Treatment. 2021 Jun 21;1-22. doi: 10.1080/09546634.2021.1944594.