Treatment with topical khellin in combination with ultraviolet A or solar-simulated radiation is carcinogenic to lightly pigmented hairless mice.

Khellin is used together with either UVA irradiation or sun exposure in the treatment of vitiligo. The purpose of this study was to investigate the carcinogenic effect of topically applied khellin together with UVA or solar simulated radiation (SSR) in lightly pigmented C3H/Tif mice. For comparison purposes a 0.1% 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) cream was also tested in combination with SSR. Fifty microliters of a 5% khellin cream, a 0.1% 8-MOP cream, or a cream without active substances were spread uniformly on the back of the mice 30 minutes before UVA or SSR irradiation. All mice were irradiated 3 times a week until age or skin tumor development necessitated killing. Treatment with topical khellin and UVA irradiation was carcinogenic to lightly pigmented hairless mice, time to 50% of the mice had developed one tumor (t50) was 507 days. This indicates that the combination of topical khellin and UVA radiation, formerly expected to be rather innocuous, is carcinogenic to mice. Also the combination of khellin and SSR (t50 = 268 days) enhanced skin tumor development significantly compared with control cream and SSR (t50 = 330 days), P < 0.05. In addition, the combination of khellin and SSR was found to have the same carcinogenic effect as treatment with 0.1% 8-MOP and SSR (t50 = 262 days). This study shows that topically applied khellin increases the carcinogenic effect of both UVA and sunlight.