Histopathologic changes in skin after photochemotherapy.

In summary, PUVA therapy is an exciting, acceptable, and effective therapy for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris. The histologic changes in the skin secondary to PUVA therapy appeared to be an accentuated solar damage of skin. Whether this therapy also enhances the incidence of skin cancers will be answered only by continued observation of these treated patients. The fear of all those engaged in PUVA therapy is that the potentiation of cutaneous neoplasia will not be recognized for many years, as was the case in superficial x-ray therapy. Obviously, careful monitoring of PUVA patients and their clinical response will help reduce UVA exposure as well as decrease the amount of psoralen ingested, and may indeed avoid the prolonged use of PUVA therapy and hopefully lessen the potential longterm cutaneous changes and possible superficial skin cancers.