If you or a loved one has skin cancer, the only treatment available is surgery. Until now! There is a new alternative to curettage and electrical ablation (the two types of surgery used on skin cancer) that works well and causes much less scarring.
The FDA recently approved the topical drug imiquimod (brand name: Aldara) for specific types of basal-cell cancers. This drug stimulates the immune system to cause local inflammation. The inflammation can kill the wayward cells.
In two studies involving 179 treated patients, and 179 placebo recipients, there was a 75% clearing compared to only 2% respectively after 12 weeks. After two years, 79% of those who cleared the cancer remained cancer free.
Now here are the caveats. The FDA approved it only for superficial basal cell cancers in people with competent immune systems. And the cancer must be located on the trunk, neck, or extremities, excluding hands and feet. It also cannot exceed two cm in size.
I would prefer this to surgery for myself. However, most problematic basal cells occur on the head and face. I believe it is only a matter of time before this or another agent is found to be successful for these lesions. Now that the product is on the market, your physician can legally try this off-label in the privacy of his office. So if you have failed surgical treatment for head and/or face basal cell cancer, this is good news. I would not hesitate to use it, along with artemisinin, in these cases.