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ACTINIC KERATOSES

Actinic Keratoses (AK's) are areas of the skin that appear scaly, crusty, or sandpaper roughness textured bumps that appear on the skin. Skin lesions may appear red, reddish-brown, brown, tan or may even look yellowish-black. AK's usually are slow growing and non-problematic. However they can become itchy and irritated. If the crust is picked off or knocked off it may bleed, but it will grow back.

Because they are due to sun exposure they usually appear on areas of the body that receive, or have received, a lot of sun light. However they can occur anywhere.

AK's are not skin cancer but are considered to be a precancerous. The longer AK's go untreated the more likely it is that they will increase in size and depth. As AK's grow deeper into deeper layer's of the skin they become, or change, into a cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma.

The most common treatments for Actinic Keratoses are:

• Cryotherapy: Liquid Nitrogen is used to freeze the growths
• Topical drug treatment: There are some medications that have been studied for the treatment of AK's and can destroy the abnormal cells.
• Curettage: An electrocartery unit is used to heat and destroy damaged tissue and seal blood vessels after the growths have been scraped and removed. Although this method is not used as often as other methods it is still a viable method of treatment.
• Excision: The growth is cut from the skin and sutures are applied

For more information contact:
American Academy of Dermatology
Telephone: (888)462-3376
www.aad.org

Skin Cancer Foundation
Telephone: (800)754-6490
www.skincancer.org