Bleomycin injection for warts

Examples

Generic Name	Brand Name
bleomycin	Blenoxane

How It Works

Bleomycin is an anticancer medicine used to stop tumor growth.

Why It Is Used

Although nongenital warts are not cancerous, bleomycin injection is sometimes used to kill skin cells, effectively stopping wart growth.

How Well It Works

There is no consistent evidence on how effective bleomycin is for warts.

Side Effects

Bleomycin causes pain during and after the injection into a wart. Longer-term side effects include:

• Scarring.
• Nail damage.
• Skin color changes.

See Drug Reference for a full list of side effects. (Drug Reference is not available in all systems.)

What To Think About

Bleomycin is injected into warts that have been resistant to other treatments. It is usually used as a last resort because the injection is painful and expensive.

Bleomycin is considered too toxic to safely treat children or pregnant or breast-feeding women.

Bleomycin should not be used in people with Raynaud's phenomenon or peripheral arterial disease.

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Author:	Caroline Rea, RN, BS, MS	Last Updated: September 11, 2008
Medical Review:	Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine Alexander H. Murray, MD, FRCPC - Dermatology
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