Health Library Bleomycin Injection for WartsFrom Healthwise

Bleomycin is an anticancer medicine used to stop tumor growth.

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

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

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.)

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.

Complete the new medication information form (PDF) (What is a PDF document?) to help you understand this medication.

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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