Coal Tar for Skin Disease: Is It Safe?

After years of use, patients using topical coal tar for psoriasis or eczema had no excess risk for skin cancer or other malignancy.

Coal tar has been used for decades to treat a variety of inflammatory skin conditions. Because it contains polyaromatic hydrocarbons, some of which are carcinogenic, its potential to cause skin cancer has raised some concern. Investigators in the Netherlands reviewed the records of more than 13,000 patients who had received therapy for psoriasis and eczema and compared cancer incidences in patients who had used topical coal tar and those who had used topical corticosteroids (a treatment assumed not to confer additional cancer risk). The mean duration of tar therapy was 6 months, and the median duration of follow-up was 21 years.

Using multivariable, proportional hazard regression analyses, the researchers found that coal tar did not raise th…

Reviewing Author

Craig A. Elmets, MD

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory board Astellas Pharmaceuticals

EquityVaxin

Grant / Research support NIH; NIH/NCI; Veteran’s Administration; Ferndale Laboratories; Kyowa Hakko Kirin Pharma, Inc.

Editorial boards Cancer Prevention Research; Photodermatology, Photoimmunology, & Photomedicine; UpToDate; eMedicine; Journal of Dermatological Sciences; JAMA Dermatology

Leadership positions in professional societies American Academy of Dermatology (Vice Chair, Committee on Science and Research); Photomedicine Society (Board of Directors)