A new research has shown that a vitamin D cream for patients with psoriasis can potentially improve the treatment of pre-cancerous skin patches on the face by more than 60%. The study conducted from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Harvard Medical School has shown that the therapy has the ability to activate the immune system's T cells, which is then found to attack the abnormal skin cells.
The Cream And Its Effects
According to reports revealed by Daily Mail, the study was able to arrive at this breakthrough discovery after scientists have combined the substance known as calcipotriol together with a widely used chemotherapy ointment which in turn has triggered a strong immune response against the abnormal cells. Dr. Lynn Cornelius, the study's co-author and director of dermatology at Washington University in the US has explained that they have looked at pre-cancerous lesions on patients with sun-damaged skin.These lesions,she adds are commonly found on the face, scalp and arms which can be sometimes seen through a visual examination and under the microscope but are not full-blown skin cancers.
Meanwhile, as per News Medical Life Sciences, it was found that the investigational therapy reduced the number of precancerous skin lesions on the face by almost 88 percent on average as compared to a 26 percent reduction using the standard chemotherapy. Although some side effects were reported to be similar with both treatments such as skin scaling and itching, patients receiving the investigational therapy reported more redness and increased burning sensations, which are consistent with the immune response that it triggers.
Furthermore, previous studies had also shown that a protein called TSLP in the skin activated immune system T-cells which attacked tumor cells. Consequently, calcipotriol is known to help the skin generate TSLP. Dr. Cornelius has added that the ideas of the study was to bring an elevated immune response in the skin using calcipotriol combined with the 5-fluorouracil that works to destroy the pre-cancerous cells.
