New Cream Treatment May Help People Prone to Skin Abnormality

Americans prone to developing actinic keratoses, a skin abnormality that can eventually become skin cancer, can ask their doctors about a new treatment option.

Carac is a fluorouracil cream that was recently approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The cream is applied to the skin, causing the abnormal cells to die off. Although other similar prescription creams are available, doctors sometimes reject them because they typically cause several weeks of redness and irritation. Many dermatologists opt to remove actinic keratoses with cryosurgery--freezing the lesions with liquid nitrogen.

Carac, however, is formulated differently from previous creams. Although it also causes redness and irritation, the cream only needs to be used for about a week, according to the manufacturer, Dermik Laboratories Inc., of Berwyn, Penn.

Actinic keratoses look like rough or scaly areas that are pink, tan, red or the same color as your skin. In about 10% of cases, a keratosis will evolve into squamous cell skin cancer.

Another product that has just received FDA approval is the ImmunoCAP allergy blood test. This blood test is used to diagnose allergies. According to the manufacturer, Pharmacia Diagnostics, the ImmunoCAP is the first FDA-approved allergy blood test that is quantitative. That means it will define just how allergic an individual is to a particular allergen.