New Versus Approved Methyl-aminolevulinate Photodynamic Therapy (MAL-PDT) Regime in Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC)

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common malignant skin lesion in white adults. It is a slow-growing tumour which despite low metastatic potential may cause significant local tissue destruction and patient morbidity. Methyl aminolevulinate cream plus photodynamic therapy (MAL-PDT) for BCC is currently approved for a procedure using 2 treatment sessions 1 week apart. This procedure is considered quite time- and resource-consuming. Introducing a single treatment session, with a new PDT session for treatment failures after 3 months, might represent an attractive simplification. This randomised controlled single-blinded multi-centre study primarily aims to compare BCC lesion response rate of two treatment schedules: (a) 1 single treatment of Metvix-PDT with re-treatment of non-complete responders by 3 months, and (b) the usual schedule of 2 standard Metvix(R) PDT treatments 1 week apart. Secondary objectives are to investigate the treatment response in relation to clinical and histological tumour characteristics such as tumour thickness, subtype and immunohistochemical markers.