Botox May Beat Cancer Concern in Race to Dermatologist

Aug. 29, 2007 — -- One patient is worried about wrinkles in her forehead. Another is concerned about a mole that she thinks may be showing signs of developing into skin cancer. Both make calls to their respective dermatologists for an appointment.

So who gets to see a doctor first?

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology on Tuesday, it's likely be the patient with the wrinkle woes — by a long shot.

In the survey, researchers called every board-certified dermatological practice in 12 metropolitan areas and posed as patients interested in botulinum toxin injections.

Lead study author Dr. Jack Resneck, an assistant professor of dermatology at the medical school of the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues found that the median wait time for a botulinum toxin jab appointment was eight days.

The researchers then compared this finding with previous research, which had found that the median wait time for an appointment to check a suspicious mole was 26 days.

Practices in Boston led the pack in terms of the discrepancy between wait times. Researchers found that a wrinkle-injection patient would see a dermatologist 55 days earlier than a patient with a suspicious mole. In Little Rock, Ark., however, the difference amounted to only half a day though the wrinkle-injection patients still came out ahead.

"Wait times for this cosmetic treatment appear to be substantially shorter than those previously reported for patients with medical skin symptoms," the authors of the study wrote. "Even when patients report a changing mole [a potentially urgent indicator of malignancy] and are willing to pay out-of-pocket for a dermatology visit, the median wait time was 18 days longer than for botulinum toxin in these [cities]."

"Clearly a changing mole is more important than injections of Botox," said Dr. Alice Pentland, chair of the department of dermatology at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y., who added that she felt the study was "well executed."