Zyclara

With my first application on Zyclara, I got a cold sore on my lower lip extending down to the chin area so my skin cancer dr had me stop Zyclara and start acyclovir pills.  Now when I have started the 2nd treatment period of Zyclara, my dr told me to start taking 1 acyclovir tablet every 12 hours, beginning a couple days before starting the Zyclara again.  I haven't  gotten a cold sore this time (tonight will be day 7 of Zyclara).  The spots on my face are getting kindof itchy and quite red, but not unbearable so I will continue Zyclara.  I've got company coming in 3 weeks and did want my face to be healed before people are here for holidays.  Right now, makeup covers everything

If you are on a 2 week on 2 week off you should be alright in 3 weeks as you only have another week left.  It did take a full 2 weeks for the scabs to be gone and while I had them make up wouldn't work.  Once scabs are gone makeup was easy to use to cover up the slight redness that has been left. 

Hi,

I am new to this board. I do not have Cancer, but this is the only board that includes experinces of using Zyclara. I was diagnosed with sun damage and was prescribed Zyclara to be used on for 12 days. I will not have to do the 2 on, 2 off, 2 on treatment because I do not have the precancerous cells. I am really nervous about using this medication and I am afraid of the side effects especially that I am a student and I cannot skip classes. The treatment is for my face and I decided to start the treatment in two weeks. I know that each individual reacts differently, but wanted to ask on average, on which day things start to get really bad? and how long after stopping the treatment will things go back to normal?  

For me it was really noticeable on about day 5. It took right at two weeks for the scabs to heal, redness is still there but manageable.

I come back to the question:  Is it "overkill" to use Zyclara for actinic keratoses? (as a preventative really so the AKs don't have a chance of becoming basal or squamous cell carcinomas or melanomas?)--and how likely is it that this would happen anyway?

What long term risk is there associated with using Zyclara?

Hey lqnutah, 

I have been reading your posts about using Zyclara. I believe that now you are done with your first two weeks on treatment. How did the treatment go? I was supposed to start on the treatment last week for my Aks on my face, but I decided not to since I am a student and I cannot deal with the side effecrts and school at the same time. I then decided to start the treatment on November 8, but after reading all the severe side effects, I decided that the best time to do the treatment is during the Christmas. I do not have have cancer cells nor precancerous cells, but I have sun damage and Aks that still did not develop into precancer. The treatment will only be for 12 days and I will not need to do a second round treatment. One small packet (.25g) is 2 days worth (half of the packet will be used the first night for left and right cheeks and the other half will be used the next night).

Please tell me how did your treatment go and update me with your healing process. 

Hi Meemz

I, too, read all the posts and I also went to links in people's posts where they posted day by day photos of themselves (uggh....).  I also read everything I could find online about Zyclara, and what it is making your body do (if I understood correctly, usually cancer cells somehow have a cloaking capability, but with Zyclara, your immune system starts being able to recognize the aberrant cells and starts attacking them.  The bad thing is, again if I understood correctly, this heightened immune system response isn't selective for the skin cells, and it may cause your immune system to attack other cells.......and that worries me.)

I got to thinking more about my Dr telling me to use the Zyclara.  It was only suggested to me because I asked the question:  Is there an alternative to freezing off these AKs? (as I really didn't like all the white scarred areas I now have on my face nor do I like the brownish darkened skin areas along my jaw line--I guess they are AKs, but they aren't raised or scaly).

So, she probably thought I wanted this.  Well, I decided it is "too much medicine" for my situation and at that point I decided not to use it any more (so I had used it 3 nights the first time, stopped for about 10 days then used it for 9 nights).  By the 10th day (the night I decided not to use it again) some of the red sores (I had about 16 of them) were getting really itchy and other places were so ulcerated, I didn't think the Zyclara should even be applied to them as it would clearly be entering my blood directly from the sores.

Here is another observation:  None of the darkened skin areas along my jaw reacted at all to the Zyclara.  Whereas, the places that DID develop red sores were places that appeared completely unblemished (to the naked eye---I guess they had damaged skin cells underneath and the Zyclara brought them to the surface?).

Oh, one last thing.  Last night (didn't apply Zyclara) I dabbed old fashioned Calamine Lotion onto the sore spots.  What relief!  It reduced the red color overnight and took all the itchiness away (I'm sure not using the Zyclara again helped too).

Hi lgnutah,

I appreciate that you are sharing your experience. I really cannot wait to start with the treatment and get done with it because what I have now is really uncomfortable (I had a sun burn while was on a beach trip which caused a really huge AK that feels like a sand paper with a pink brown color). I was told by the dermatologist that my reaction to Zyclara would probably be as the second picture in the severe response in the link below. 

http://fromyourdoctor.com/Health_Guides/Zyclara_imiquimod_fo

I was told that my face will be red for a week after the treatment, but after that it will look and feel great. 

From reading other's experiences, some people reported that their skin felt and looked great after healing. 

Wanted to ask you do you consider your reaction as severe or moderate? and if you do not mind could you please tell me what Calamine Lotion brand did you use?

I will also be in touch with you if you do not mind to ask you about your healing progress.  

I would say my response was between mild and moderate (the mild response person only had one red spot on her temple, the moderate response photo bald head person had about 50!).

My whole face did not turn red, my eyes or lips didn't swell (I did follow the recommendation to spread Vaseline over my top and bottom eyelids and over my lips before I applied Zyclara), and only about 3 of the sores that developed were very sensitive to the touch.  Most of the sores that developed had a lump underneath the skin surface.  Some of them started to sting when the Zyclara was applied (by the time I got to about night 7) and about 3 were intensely itchy.

I had just generic Calamine Lotion and I applied it to each red spot with a Qtip last night (if you have never used it before, it dries to a milky pink on top of the skin and where the skin is irregular, it looks kindof crusty/ugly but it really helped a lot.

I didn't put any makeup on today as I just stayed home, but Estee Lauder Double Wear makeup will hide the red spots completely for up to 18 hours  (you can actually go by an EL counter, and you want to try out their Double Wear makeup and they will give you a free 10 day sample!).  EL sells a Max Cover makeup, but I think Double Wear is better-looks pretty natural and coverage is unbelievable (and I am a person who never wore makeup my whole life.....probably why i have so many AKs on my face haha)

Hi lgnutah, 

Thanks for the recommendations about the makeup. I never used makeup on my face and I do not think that it would help cover the red spots, I think it is going to look ugly with the makeup because of the sand paper texture of my skin. I am preparing myself for this journey and would definitely get the Calamine Lotion because I know it is going to be a tough journey.  

I know it is only been few nights since you stopped applying the Zyclara, but was wondering how is your skin doing so far? 

Thanks