The goal of this clinical trial is to see if shorter Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) treatment times will still be effective at treating actinic keratoses (AK) while reducing or eliminating the pain that patients sometimes experience during conventional PDT treatment. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Will the application of the nanoemulsion (10% ALA gel), in the absence of occlusion, still achieve significant inflammation and lesion clearance? * Will shortened incubation times of Ameluz still achieve significant inflammation and lesion clearance? * Will the new test regimens achieve reduced pain during illumination? * Will the new test regimens be safe? Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three treatment regimens, which will determine the length of time that the topical medication will incubate on the face before red light exposure in PDT treatments. The incubation period will be either 10 minutes, 20 minutes, or 60 minutes.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
30
10% ALA gel to the entire face, without occlusion, followed by a prespecified incubation period
Illumination of red light of narrow spectrum of 635 nm with a light dose of approximately 37 J/cm2
Cleveland Clinic, Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Institute, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Cleveland, Ohio, United States
Treatment Efficacy Based on Participant AK Lesion Clearance
To test the hypothesis that a short-contact PDT protocol with Ameluz and red light will produce lesion clearance outcomes that are statistically non-inferior to the traditional, painful protocol. This will be measured by Clinical Efficacy, which will be based on the AK lesion counts and lesion clearance rate after two treatments.
Time frame: Lesion clearance at Visit 3 (month 2) and at Visit 4 (month 6)
Differences in Pain Level Reported Throughout Exposure to Red Light
Pain will be reported by the participants during illumination will be measured on a subjective 11-point visual-analog scale (VAS scale 0= no pain, 10 = intolerable pain)
Time frame: Pain measured during illumination with red light (during a 10 min period) at Visit 1 (Day 3) and at Visit 3 (Month 2)
Patient Satisfaction Survey as Measured by Treatment Outcome Score
Treatment score on a scale of 0 to 5, where 0 indicates extremely dissatisfied and 5 indicates extremely satisfied.
Time frame: 6 months
Patient Satisfaction Survey as Measured by Cosmetic Outcome Score
Cosmetic score on a scale of 0 to 5, where 0 indicates extremely dissatisfied and 5 indicates extremely satisfied.
Time frame: At month 6
Number of Participant Reported Adverse Events and Side Effects
Overall AE Profile and Safety of treatment will be measured using an Adverse Events- Patients' side effects log and Investigator assessment.
Time frame: Up to 6 days (Day 6) after Visit 1
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