I got scolded by my dermatologist, as one does when one has worked and played outside in the mountains for almost 60 years. I am a week in to fluorouracil 5% and triamcinolone, and I feel like I’ve tangled with a Portuguese Man’oWar. I’m doing my neck, ears and the back of my hands and the itching is so intense it borders on pain. I’ve already had one Basal Cell cancer removed, and would prefer to forego melanoma, but this is excruciating!
Anyone else? We’re all “of an age.”
I’ve had it prescribed several times. The last time it was combined with a course of calcipotriene that was less itchy and worked well. One thing: don’t ever get it anywhere near your eyes!
I’ve used it. I got a lot of scabby lesions, but they weren’t particularly itchy. Worked good though. I still use it on individual keratoses from time to time.
I’ve done the raw 5FU treatment on my face for a month. I do not recall it being horribly itchy. Annoyance level, yes; Wanna rip my face off, no. My whole face was bright red and grossly peely for a month. Looked like the sunburn from hell or a bad case of leprosy. I started telling people “No, this isn’t contagious” after a few people really recoiled in horror at my ghastly appearance.
Echoing @blondebear … The same dermo next time prescribed a 1 week course of the same 5FU plus calcipotriene. So one ointment applied followed immediately by the other 2x/day for 7 days. Supposedly equal clinical results, no red face, and no itching. Can recommend.
BCCs and melanomas are two very different beasts, and one doesn’t “turn into” the other if left to simmer.
But yeah, getting your BCCs treated while they’re small is the smart move. I grew up on a beach and I was age ~25 when I had my first BCC removal. I’ve probably had 40 of them cut out by now. Plus a few squamous cell carcinomas ("SCC"s). Untold numbers of AKs & SKs have been frozen. No sign of melanoma, but I get full-body examined every 4 months. We always find a couple new spots to biopsy with about half being benign and half BCCs.
The 5FU + calcipitrione treatment really knocks down the incipient BCCs on the areas we treat. We do the 1 week on the face + forehead drill every 2 or 3 years. The BCCs we’re finding now are mostly elsewhere.
Beside melanoma, the thing you really want to avoid is a BCC or SCC ~1cm or larger. Which can only get that way by neglecting a small one while it’s growing slowly but steadily. Once they get that big they like to burrow inwards, and especially the SCCs. That can get complicated, albeit generally not life-threatening, quickly after that.
IMO/IME skin cancer management is not a cause for panic, but it is a cause for calm diligent vigilance. And most of the treatments IME are mere annoyances, not medical BFDs.
I smeared a tube of it on my arms for a couple weeks. I don’t recall it being painful in any way.
Hmm. This is quite uncomfortable–it really does remind me of when I was stung extensively by jellyfish larvae. Maybe I should call my Dr.
I did a course of it on my face a few years ago, during winter. At one point there had been a heavy snowfall and I went out to clear it off the cars, and just mashed my face into the snow on the car for a while, to cool it off. This felt wonderful. I think I could hear a hissing and bubbling noise from the snow…