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Researchers from Stanford University and other institutions conducted two new pilot studies, and report that ketoprofen, a common anti-inflammatory drug, significantly eases swelling and other skin damage from lymphedema.
“For a long time I couldn’t talk to people about my lymphedema without crying because it’s something weird and obscure,” Hanson said in a university news release. “Now there is hope for people like me with this disease.”
A condition affecting millions
Lymphedema refers to painful fluid buildup in a limb, often after lymph node removal due to cancer treatment.
The prescription medicine ketoprofen is a cousin to over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen (Advil) and naproxen (Aleve), said lead author Dr. Stanley Rockson, director of Stanford’s Center for Lymphatic and Venous Disorders.
Ketoprofen is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for “chronic forms of inflammation that need an aggressive approach” such as arthritis, he said.
But using it for lymphedema — which affects about 3 million people in the United States — appears to alleviate the burdensome condition, according to the small new studies.
Lymphedema often results after cancer surgery (most notably breast cancer), but it can also be due to infection or other trauma, according to background notes.
Lymphedema has no cure. Current treatments include compression garments, electric pumps and massage therapy to move lymph fluid manually through tissues. Rockson said ketoprofen could be an important add-on to those treatments.
“What’s dramatic for me, having worked with lymphedema patients now for 30 years, is that the traditional thought about lymphedema is it progresses from fluid accumulation to progressive, structural, irreversible damage,” Rockson said.
“We’re gratified to see that these supposedly irreversible results are not irreversible,” he added.
Real improvement
Rockson and his colleagues undertook a pair of small trials. First, 21 lymphedema patients took a 75-gram dose of ketoprofen by mouth three times a day for four months. The researchers performed skin biopsies at the start of the trial and again four months later to measure disease severity.
Based on encouraging findings, the follow-up trial enrolled 34 lymphedema patients, with 16 receiving ketoprofen and 18 receiving a placebo drug. Ketoprofen recipients showed reduced skin thickness as well as improvements in other factors related to skin health and elasticity.
“After a couple of months, I remember going home one day and taking my compression stockings off and looking at my leg, thinking, ‘Wow, my skin is wrinkly, that’s so weird,'” said Hanson, who took part in the trials. “The skin wasn’t so taut or thick. It was more like normal.”
She stressed that in her case at least, ketoprofen is “not a cure,” but it has produced a real improvement.
“Over time, the swelling has gone down,” Hanson said. “It doesn’t make it go away, but it has been easier to take care of my leg.”
An ‘exciting’ new option
Rockson said researchers also got the impression that patients treated with ketoprofen experienced a significant decrease in infections, though the studies didn’t specifically analyze that aspect. The drug works by blocking an inflammatory pathway in the body, he noted.
Like other NSAIDs, side effects of ketoprofen can include gastrointestinal upset or bleeding. Lymphedema patients who’d like to consider taking ketoprofen should speak with their doctors and weigh their risk factors, Rockson said.