Advances in keloid treatment

Keloids long had a reputation as nearly untreatable, with high recurrence whatever you did. That reputation is softening as the field shifts toward standardized combination protocols and refines its tools.

The biggest practical advance is the recognition that combinations beat any single treatment, excision with adjuvant radiation for high-risk lesions, steroid injections paired with vascular laser, cryotherapy combined with intralesional medication. Newer injectables beyond corticosteroids, including agents that target the abnormal collagen and inflammatory signaling more specifically, are being used for resistant keloids, and research into the molecular drivers of keloid growth is opening further directions.

Clinics that follow this literature closely tend to deploy structured, multi-modal protocols rather than one-off treatments, an approach leading dermatology practices discuss in their clinical writing. For patients, the meaningful change is that a stubborn keloid today has more, and better-coordinated, options than it did a decade ago, provided it is treated by someone using current combination strategies rather than chasing it with a single tool.

Related reading: Laser treatment for keloids: what it can and cannot do.

Further reading: Hypertrophic Scars and Keloids: Advances in Treatment and Review of Established Therapies (Am J Clin Dermatol 2023); Recent Progress in Keloid Mechanism and Treatment: A Comprehensive Review (Biomedicines 2025); Treatment of keloids and hypertrophic scars: a meta-analysis and review of the literature (Arch Facial Plast Surg 2006).