No, this isn't about assault rifles; it is about another type of assault, i.e. the assault of the sun on our skin.
After years of exposure to the sun in Italy, I moved to Ireland when I discovered scaly areas on my pate which I couldn't remove even after a long regimen of exfoliants and emollients - some became persistent pink sores the size of a quarter (Euro). After visiting friends in Florida, I learned from their experiences that these patches were most likely actinic keratoses which have a 6 percent chance of progressing to squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer that can be fatal. Approximately 50 percent of Americans over the age of 50 have actinic keratoses. These Floridians take it as a matter of course to rub on Efudex cream for a few weeks causing the AKs to redden and become quite unsightly as they are destroyed.
I found this method efficacious.
It was in San Francisco where I tried another treatment, Levulan Photodynamic Therapy (PDT), which involves the application of Levulan which is then activated with Intense Pulsed Light Treatment (IPL) and blue-light. It takes about an hour after the stick of Levulan is applied before the IPL is administered. The IPL has the added advantage in that it can also help to remove mottled sun damaged skin. I noticed many darkened spots on my head sloughed off after a week. The IPL is a little painful despite the topical pain killer. It's like a small electric shock zapping the skin over an imaginary grid. It took about 30 minutes.
As Levulan PDT has a greater success rate on the face and other extremities than it does on the scalp, I intend to keep up an annual regimen of Efudex because it also reveals areas which otherwise are not apparent. Some of these areas are quite large and appear after about the first 10 days of application. After more than 3 weeks, these patches become very red, sore and weepy.
What Efudex doesn't eradicate entirely can be dealt the death blow with the old tried and true "gold standard", i.e. liquid nitrogen, which must be applied till it hurts like a sonuvabitch. This will result in a blister which goes away in about a fortnight.