Finalist
PEAK – Progressing Evidence in Aktinic Keratosis to Optimise Care for Patients
Summary of work
Actinic keratosis (AK) lesions are rough patches of skin caused by years of sun exposure. Although most lesions are not serious and may spontaneously resolve, some will progress to sun-related skin cancer (squamous cell carcinoma; SCC). AK lesions are surrounded by areas of subclinical, non-visible sun damage that can develop into visible AK lesions and SCC (called field cancerisation), which is treated by field therapy; however, routine practice has been that physicians only treat the lesion, not the entire field.
The Progressing Evidence in AK (PEAK) programme is an EU-wide initiative led by globally-renowned experts to drive a belief-shift in the importance of treating the field in AK.
A Steering Committee of eight experts was responsible for identifying barriers to effective AK management, developing a treatment algorithm, the AK Field Assessment Scale (AK-FAS), and an educational roll-out programme to engage the dermatology community. The Steering Committee was pivotal to the roll-out of the programme, delivering symposia at the EADV and EADO congresses and authoring publication of the AK-FAS in Acta Dermato Venereologica. Implementation of the AK-FAS has already led to a more standardised approach to diagnosing and treating AK.
Judges’ comments
Leading Edge and Leo Pharma have put together a strong, systematic and well thought through programme. It had good stakeholder feedback and the judges look forward to seeing how it develops.
