Photodynamic Therapy for the Treatment of Skin Cancer in Patients with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia: A Case Report

Abstract

Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia (IT) is an autoimmune disease in which the patients present a
reduction of blood platelets, increasing the risk of bleeding and its complications. Especially,
elderly patients those with neoplasia associated to idiopathic thrombocytopenia are more likely
to severe risks of bleeding. Here were report a case of an eighty-year-old man with diagnosis
of idiopathic thrombocytopenia and confirmed biopsy of nodular basal cell carcinoma (nBCC)
located on the nose. The use of the standard treatment surgery was not carried in this case due
to risks generated by autoimmune disease. Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) was indicated as an
adjuvant therapy associated to shaving and electrocoagulation providing elimination of recent
cancer cells. This PDT is an alternative for the treatment of modular basal cell carcinoma no
greater than 2 cm of diameter and small depth. The patient was treated with shaving, electrocoagulation
and topical PDT using 20% methyl aminolevulinate (MAL) and fluency of 150 J/cm2
with 630 nm light. This adjuvant treatment of nodular BCC is minimally invasive and can be
indicated to patients with surgical risks, and that is the importance for this report. The success
of this case is an important precedent for thousands of patients’ with similar conditions.