Fluorouracil

[JEBar]

just over a week ago I went for my yearly appointment with a Dermatologist ... he said that it is time for me to once again under go a Fluorouracil treatment

Fluorouracil

for those who may not know, Fluorouracil is supposed to attack sun damaged skin and prevent it from evolving into skin cancer .... my best description of how this stuff works is it attacks sun damaged skin cells (per my doctor's words "like a heat seeking missile " and chemically cauterizes it .... in my case, 79 years of sun exposure has clearly caused some problems ...this is my 3rd treatment, the last one was back in early 2009n.... based on my experience, the best way to describe it is the worst sun burn that I've ever known ... this first week's application of Fluorouracil ended today .... the pictures below were taken a few minutes ago, the red areas are spots that could have become cancer .... my reason for posting this thread is to bring to folks attention that there is something that can be done to prevent common types of skin cancer .... while the past few days have been very uncomfortable, the alternative seems to me to be much worse

[cooperhawk]

Yup, me too.

[Mags]

Didn't work for me. The skin irritation from the Fluorouracil made my skin cancer significantly worse and spread. I had to have surgery to remove the skin where the stuff was used. My dermatologist said my skin reaction was rare. That it works for most people.

[clovishound]

BTDT. My dermatologist will likely have me do another course soon. I've used a couple different types of this genre of medicines. The worst was some new stuff that you only applied twice. It caused a very severe reaction to all the skin it was applied to. After everything healed up, it didn't appear to do much good. I talked to my doc on the next visit, and he said the stuff had been pulled from the market already. The last couple of times I've used these creams, they have done an excellent job of cleaning up all the actinic keratosis spots on my face. Unfortunately, they haven't done a thing for those on the top of my head.

PSA to all the folks here on the forum. It is important that you see a dermatologist on a regular basis, especially if you have, or do spend a lot of time in the sun. I didn't see one for years, when I should have, and when I finally decided it was a good idea, he found a melanoma. Fortunately, it was early enough to be removed in his office, and had not spread. Had I waited longer, I wouldn't be here right now. FYI, mine wasn't the standard looking type of melanoma, and even my regular doc didn't see it as an issue. Survival rates for melanomas that have metastasized are very, very low. Catch them early and they are no big deal.

[Sir Henry]

I’m in good shape for as much sun as I’ve had in my life. Right now I have a farmers tan and red-neck describes me quite well. Thanks for posting as I’ve never heard of this stuff.

[CT_Shooter]

During my High School years, tanning with baby oil was pretty standard beach fare and I always got as dark as roasted coffee. Even as children, we always had deep, dark tans in the summertime. My old-school, Polish grandmother would scold my mother for allowing us to look like "the coloreds". Mom wasn't influenced.

Later, as an adult, I spent most of my free time over the course of fifty + years on a boat on the CT River or Long Island Sound; no sunscreen and usually no hat or shirt. Got tanned early and stayed tanned till Thanksgiving. Then started it all again in the spring.

Had my first full-body scan by a dermatologist three years ago. She cut off two spots for biopsy, one on my leg, the other on my head, both were pre-cancerous. This year, she froze a spot on my bald head and one on my face. She said they were also pre-cancerous. My annual appointment is automatically scheduled now.

Lucky so far, considering...