Re: New To Forum...long post!

Welcome to our forum! We know how you feel, and I hope you will learn new things on this forum that help reduce the peeling.

In a recent post I mentioned photodynamic therapy as a treatment option. I read that it could be painful and may not reduce _any_ skin problem 100%, and in the case of EC probably needs 2 or 3 treatments.

However, I am certainly willing to try it out. I've read up more about it, and it really does seem safe. I don't care about the pain as long as PDT can help. Further, to answer your question, I think PDT may be one of the only treatments that can directly affect skin growth. It does this by 2 mechanisms.

1. The gel you smear onto your lips will be taken up by rapidly dividing cells quickly, and hardly in other cells. The cells that are most rapidly dividing are the ones in the basal layers of the epidermis, and particularly in EC; they divide very fast in a controlled way. Because of the chemical and biological characteristics of this gel (photosensitizer), I am certain that even in EC this will happen. Once illuminated, the gel will destroy those rapidly dividing cells, thus directly slowing skin growth.
2. The gel also seems to reduce inflammation, which very well may be an important factor in EC. In inflammation, immune cells give off lots of growth factors to other cells (such as skin cells in the basal layers).

The latter will probably be not very effective in reducing my EC, as many of us have tried anti-inflammatory medicines that didn't help. However, in particular the former will be new in any type of treatment mentioned on this forum (aside from perhaps surgery).


Also of note: my dermatologists took a biopsy off my lower lip to see how the underlying tissue looks like. They will examine if mechanical damage, 'sun'/ UV-damage, or chemical or dietary issues may be important. I myself am a medical biologist, so I am very interested in examining the biopsied skin myself. i will update in ~1 week, when I have had my next appointment.

Maybe this will give you some hope to controlling this thing. The Cure Is Out There!

Michel Tweet