Browsing by Author "Rodrigues, Juliana Costa"
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- Actinic keratosis treatment : from current guidelines to promising drug delivery systemsPublication . Rodrigues, Juliana Costa; Miranda, MargaridaDue to its high prevalence and ability to evolve into skin cancer, Actinic keratosis (AK) is one of the most frequent reasons that leads patients to the dermatologist. Due to his privileged position within the community, the pharmacist is an important player in promoting health literacy, therefore it is important to raise awareness on this specific disease and to have a detailed knowledge on the available treatments. The current AK treatment guidelines refer to lesion-directed destruction (destructive therapies) or/combined with field treatments, that regard topical drugs. Topical drug delivery offers several advantages which favour patient compliance such as direct access for localized delivery to the disease site, absence of first-pass metabolism, fewer adverse side effects, non-invasive profile. For this reason, topical drugs such as 5-fluorouracil, imiquimod and ingenol mebutate are widely used in AK management. There are however disadvantages concerning the topical route, namely its limited efficacy in removing all lesions in a short period of time. Therefore, there is the need to develop new topical medicines able to surpass these limitations. There are currently 158 clinical trials registered in the clinicaltrial.gov database investigating new topical drug products for AK treatment. Furthermore, there are also numerous academic studies that present novel drug delivery systems, such as liposomes, nanoparticles, polymeric micelles, among others, which may be useful in AK. These systems are design to improve drug stability, enhance skin penetration, provide controlled release and increase the drug concentration in the target site. Taking this background into account, the aim of this monograph is to conduct a review of the available treatments for AK. To achieve so, besides addressing the drugs mentioned in the AK management guidelines, this work will also focus on the drugs being currently tested in clinical trials, as well as on promising drug delivery systems.