Incidence of skin cancers in 3867 patients treated with narrow-band ultraviolet B phototherapy

Hearn R, Kerr A, Rahim K, Ferguson J, Dawe R

Br J Dermatol. 2008;159:931-935.

Throughout the world, narrow-band ultraviolet B phototherapy (NB-UVB) has replaced broad-band ultraviolet B phototherapy for the treatment of psoriasis as it has proven to be more effective. Therefore, NB-UVB phototherapy has become a widely used therapy option. Because there is such limited data on the correlation between phototherapy and incidences of skin cancer, Hearn, Kerr, Rahim, et al. investigated. 3867 patients participated in the study and “no association was found between NB-UVB exposure alone (without psoralen-ultraviolet A phototherapy (PUVA)) and any skin cancer.”