Topical Treatment of Bowen's Disease with 5-Fluorouracil

Abstract

Bowen's disease is a common skin cancer. There are many different therapeutic approaches to treatment. Topical 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) cream has been used for many years and there are many published papers attesting to its effectiveness. However, no papers have presented long-term followup results with biopsy confirmation of cure.The purpose of this article is to present the long-term findings following the use of this cream in the treatment of Bowen's disease.Twenty-four patients with 26 biopsy-confirmed lesions of Bowen's disease were treated with topical 5-Fluorouracil cream and were followed for periods of up to 10 years. Posttreatment biopsies were performed in most cases.Two of the 26 lesions treated topically recurred at some point. The rest were apparently cured.The results presented in this article confirm that treatment of Bowen's disease with topical 5-Fluorouracil cream is safe and effective treatment.