Assessment of reflectance confocal microscopy for monitoring treatment of actinic keratosis and field cancerization with daylight photodynamic therapy.

Abstract

Actinic keratosis (AK) is the most common pre-malignant cutaneous lesion of the skin, often associated with field cancerization. Daylight photodynamic therapy (DL-PDT) is used as treatment, showing good histological results. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) may be useful as a non-invasive, real-time approach to monitor treatment, however, there is a lack of data on the correlation between RCM and histopathological findings in AK patients treated with DL-PDT. To correlate histological and RCM findings and evaluate the efficacy of DL-PDT in patients with AK and field cancerization treated with DL-PDT. Patients with field cancerization and a minimum of six AK lesions on the face were included in the study. A single session combining methyl aminolevulinate followed by two-hour daylight exposure of the face was performed. RCM and biopsy were performed before and after three months of the intervention to compare efficacy between patients using the Wilcoxon test, and concordance of the findings based on the different methods was analysed using the Kappa test. Twenty-four patients completed the study. An improvement in photodamage and a decrease in the number of AK lesions (45.3% reduction) was observed. Regression in atypia and dysplasia was observed via histopathology and RCM, however, there was poor agreement between the methods. No changes were observed after treatment for inflammation, fibroplasia and acantholysis. Concordance between histological and RCM findings was poor, suggesting that RCM cannot replace the histopathological examination, however, it may be used as an adjuvant test for follow-up of patients. Despite this, DL-PDT proved to be an effective method for treating AK.