Chemotherapy drug may help with sun-damaged skin

Scottsdale, AZ – Researchers have found that the chemotherapy drug – fluorouracil – may help reduce the appearance of sun-damaged and aging skin while reducing the number of pre-cancerous skin patches (Source: medicalnewstoday.com).

Dr Dana L. Sachs, Associate Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, led the research team for the study published in the 6 June issue of Archives of Dermatology. According to the study, fluorouracil, which is used in chemotherapy treatment of cancers of the colon, head and neck, pancreas and other organs, stops the body being able to make thymine, a building block of DNA.

For this study, Sachs and colleagues asked 21 healthy volunteers with sun-damaged skin and lesions to apply 5 per cent fluorouracil cream to the face twice a day for two weeks and regularly examined their skin for molecular and clinical changes during this time and also for another 22 weeks afterwards.The clinical evaluation noted overall improvements in aging-relating damage, including a reduction in wrinkling, dark spots and skin tone.