It's also possible to destroy these small cancers by scraping or freezing them off, or applying a topical cream.
She added, "The implication that a topical cream can do as much as a neurotoxin is wrong".
3M, which is based in a suburb of St . Paul Minn., already sells a topical cream called Aldara to treat genital warts.
But for all the efforts by the drug makers, many dermatologists are still not comfortable using any drug other than a topical cream.
Further away from approval is a topical cream aimed at treating erectile dysfunction that is being developed by NexMed, a small biotechnology company in Robbinsville, N.J.
It took two days for our doctor to call back, staying on the line long enough to suggest a topical cream.
"Some people's bodies make melanin so quickly that it overwhelms any topical cream you're going to put on," Dr. Marmur said.
But in sour economic times is the notion that a topical cream might work for some people some of the time enough to prompt consumers to purchase — or continue to purchase — a product?
"I got tired of being scared," she said, and started to work with a molecular biologist to refine what has since become the Wiley Protocol, which consists of a bioidentical estradiol and progesterone preparation in a topical cream (she holds the patent) that is "dosed to mimic the natural hormones produced by your body when you were 20 years old," she said.
Army divers and other members of the special forces now apply a topical cream, developed by Yanagihara and sold under the name Sting No More, that uses certain metal salts to neutralize the porins; Diana Nyad employed it in 2013 during her record-breaking swim from Havana to Key West.
Topical cream containing the AgSD is currently commercially available.
