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| |  WCD: Genital/Perianal Warts Improve with Imiquimod Cream By Jill Stein Special to DG News PARIS, FRANCE -- July 5, 2002 -- Imiquimod 5 percent cream is a safe and effective treatment for external genital and perianal warts, researchers reported at the 20th World Congress of Dermatology (WCD). Dr. Selim Aractingi, with Tenon Hospital in Paris, France, presented the results of an open-label study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of imiquimod 5 percent cream in 943 patients with external genital/perianal warts. Patients applied the cream three times per week for up to 16 weeks. If the warts cleared, the patients entered a six-month follow-up; patients whose warts partially cleared in the initial treatment period or who experienced recurrence during follow-up were treated for up to 16 additional weeks. A total of 66 percent of patients experienced total clearance during the initial and extended treatment periods. The overall clearance rate in an intent-to-treat analysis was 53 percent. The median time to clearance was 8.8 weeks. Among patients who experienced total clearance during treatment 23 percent experienced recurrent or new wart growth during six months of follow-up. In the patients who reapplied imiquimod following wart recurrence, imiquimod was effective in reclearing warts in 70 percent of patients. The most common local skin reaction observed by investigators was erythema, which was experienced by 67 percent of patients. Most local skin reactions were mild to moderate in severity. For patients who continued treatment beyond 16 weeks or reapplied imiquimod following wart recurrence, the frequency of local skin reactions decreased from the first treatment period to the subsequent one. Results also showed that patients rated imiquimod as better than other genital wart therapies they had previously received in terms of overall satisfaction, convenience, lack of associated pain, and length of time to wart clearance. More than 85 percent of physicians asked to rate therapies for genital warts cited imiquimod as a convenient treatment option. Furthermore, physicians believed that their patients experienced little or no pain with imiquimod treatment. Imiquimod, an immune response modifier, is recommended as a patient-applied treatment option for external genital and perianal warts by guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and government health bodies in Europe and Latin America. The study was sponsored by 3M Pharmaceuticals.
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