Focused update: Guidelines of care for the management of actinic keratosis

Abstract

Background: Actinic keratoses (AKs) are rough scaly patches that arise on chronically UV-exposed skin and can progress to keratinocyte carcinoma.

Objective: In 2021, the American Academy of Dermatology published guidelines to assist in clinical decision-making for the management of AK. The purpose of this focused guideline update is to incorporate recently available evidence on the use of topical tirbanibulin to treat AK.

Methods: A multidisciplinary work group conducted a systematic review to evaluate data on the use of tirbanibulin for AK and applied the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach for assessing the certainty of the evidence and formulating and grading a clinical recommendation. The graded recommendation was voted on to achieve consensus.

Results: Two trials were identified, and analysis of the evidence resulted in 1 recommendation.

Limitations: This analysis is based on the best available evidence at the time it was conducted. Long-term efficacy and safety data are not currently available.

Conclusions: A strong recommendation for the use of topical tirbanibulin to join the currently recommended list of topical therapies for AK was made on the basis of the available evidence.

Keywords: actinic keratosis; actinic keratosis guidelines; clinical guidelines for actinic keratosis; tirbanibulin; topical agents.