Do the sap from Euphorbia peplus is effective against human nonmelanoma skin cancers?
The clinical responses for these relatively unfavourable lesions (43% had failed previous treatments, 35% were situated in the head and neck region and 30% were > 2 cm in diameter), are comparable with existing nonsurgical treatments. An active ingredient of E. peplus sap has been identified as ingenol mebutate (PEP005). This clinical study affirms community experience with E. peplus sap, and supports further clinical development of PEP005 for the treatment of BCC, SCC and IEC.
These findings suggest that there might be different biologic effects of estrogens in males and females, and highlight the importance of considering gender differences in future studies of PGD.