Topical Treatment for Superficial Disseminated Actinic Porokeratosis: A Single-Blinded Comparison Between Lovastatin/Cholesterol and Lovastatin

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of cholesterol/lovastatin versus lovastatin alone to treat porokeratosis. Our working hypothesis is that both topical cholesterol/lovastatin and lovastatin alone are helpful in treating patients with disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis (DSAP). Potential subjects will be approached by their care team member to be made aware of the study at MUSC Dermatology clinics. Subsequently, members of the study team will approach their own patients to ask for participation in this study. Pertinent project information, risks, and time commitment will be relayed to subjects. If subjects show interest in participating, they will be given consent forms to either sign or bring home for consideration. If the patient is eligible for the study, he or she will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. They will have a 50/50 chance of being in either group. You will not make the choice to which group you are assigned. The two groups are Group A (cholesterol/lovastatin) and Group B (lovastatin only). The patient will not be informed of which group they are in and will not be informed of what their study medication is, allowing single-blinding. Researchers will not be masked. Initial enrollment will occur virtually. Enrolled subjects will be followed up at monthly intervals for three months via virtual check-in. At each visit, participants will undergo brief physical examination; additionally, clinical photographs of the lesion will be obtained. Photographs will be stored in the electronic medical record and stored in a departmental secure drive for further analysis of lesion features. At each visit the novel DSAP- General Assessment Scale and RAND36 QoL scale will be administered. Patients will be contacted via virtual check-in visits at weeks 4, 8, and 12. Patients will be asked about compliance and any adverse effects experienced. Participants will also be contacted by phone by study team member to assess for any adverse effects at weeks 2 and 6 of treatment. Compounded topical medication prescribed to subjects will be self-applied twice daily. These medications will be prepared by Tide Water Pharmacy Charleston, SC and Chemistry RX Philadelphia, PA. Chemistry Rx will ship the medications to the patients. They will be prepared so the study will remain single-blinded. The associated costs will not be covered by the research budget. Dermoscopic and clinical photographs will be subsequently analyzed for the presence of cornoid lamella. The team will record any additional dermoscopic or clinicals feature that may arise during the analyses. Frequency of dermoscopic and clinical features will be analyzed against clinical involution to find possible predictors.