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 Ionic Contraviral Therapy- ICVT
Skin Warts And Verrucae
Human papilloma viruses (HPVs) are a group of DNA viruses that
cause a wide range of disease including warts and verrucae
(plantar warts i.e. warts on the feet). More than 100 HPV
types have been described, and life-threatening disease can
result, when the virus causes mutation in the cell leading to
cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus and penis. HPV is
also associated with numerous other tumours including non
melanoma skin cancer, oral, tonsillar, and conjunctival
cancer. ICVT is not currently being examined as a treatment of
skin or cervical cancer.
HPV infection is also the cause of skin and plantar warts (verrucae)
and condyloma accuminata (genital warts), which are
numerically the most common form of the infection. Most people
will experience infection with HPV at some time of their life.
The prevalence of simple warts in children in the Northern
Hemisphere are estimated between 3.9% and 4.9%7 and up to 20%
in young adults. These lesions often require treatment as they
may be painful, unsightly or cause occupational difficulty.
Warts in those with compromised immunity are much more
troublesome and resistant to treatment.
Current clinical treatments for skin warts involve lesion
destruction. These procedures include excision using scalpel,
laser, freezing, or lesion ablation with toxic agents applied
topically and/or intralesionally (e.g. salicylic acid,
podophyllin etc.). The 2002 Cochrane review of treatments for
skin warts ( a comprehensive independent review of treatments)
included data from 50 clinical trials, concluded that there
was only good evidence for topical treatments containing
salicylic acid being effective. It is well known that patient
acceptability of salicylic acid based treatments is poor,
recurrence rates are often high, and local adverse effects may
be considerable. The review also concluded that “No one
treatment is strikingly effective” and the reviewers found
that “Little evidence exists for the efficacy of cryotherapy
and no consistent evidence for the efficacy of all the other
treatments reviewed”.
It is clear that the current treatments are unsatisfactory and
there is an urgent need to develop drugs with greater
efficacy, specificity and improved adverse-effect profile. A
drug with easier use and low toxicity will have a significant
impact on compliance.
Studies completed by Henderson Morley have now demonstrated
that ICVT is safe and well tolerated, when formulated as a
patch to be applied to skin and plantar warts, and is the
subject of further clinical development to confirm the
optimistic results demonstrated below (which were obtained in
named patient studies).
Next:
Genital Warts
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