Highly variable clinical feature and course of aggressive digital papillary adenocarcinoma.

Aggressive digital papillary adenocarcinoma (ADPA) is a rare cutaneous tumor with sweat gland differentiation. Due to the high risk of local recurrence and delayed metastasis, the wide local resection of the primary lesion and long-term follow up are recommended for ADPA. Here, we report two cases of ADPA.

Proposed classification of longitudinal melanonychia based on clinical and dermoscopic criteria.

Background: For longitudinal melanonychia, clinical and dermoscopic criteria for differentiating malignant melanoma in situ from benign nevus/lentigo/functional melanonychia have not been fully established.

Objective: To propose a clinical classification of longitudinal melanonychia that is useful in judging the need for follow-up.

Methods: A total of 137 patients with longitudinal melanonychia referred to our outpatient clinic in the most recent eight years were included.

Clinicopathologic analysis of 66 Japanese thin melanomas with metastasis of sentinel or regional lymph node.

Background: Assessment of sentinel lymph node status is commonly performed in the treatment of cutaneous melanoma. However, there are no definite guidelines for thin melanomas with Breslow tumor thickness <1.0 mm, in part because thin melanomas are relatively infrequently positive for lymph node metastasis.

The majority of generalized pustular psoriasis without psoriasis vulgaris is caused by deficiency of interleukin-36 receptor antagonist.

Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a rare inflammatory skin disease that can be life-threatening. Recently, it has been reported that familial GPP is caused by homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations of IL36RN. However, the majority of GPP cases are sporadic and it is controversial whether IL36RN mutations are a causative/predisposing factor for sporadic GPP.

Applicability of radiocolloids, blue dyes and fluorescent indocyanine green to sentinel node biopsy in melanoma.

Patients with primary cutaneous melanoma underwent sentinel node (SN) mapping and biopsy at 25 facilities in Japan by the combination of radiocolloid with gamma probe and dye. Technetium-99m ((99m)Tc)-tin colloid, (99m)Tc-phytate, 2% patent blue violet (PBV) and 0.4% indigo carmine were used as tracers.

Therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome developed by dacarbazine, nimustine hydrochloride and vincristine sulfate (DAV) therapy for patient with malignant melanoma.

Therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome (t-MDS) is mostly attributed to chemotherapeutic agents of alkylating agents. Few studies have evaluated the late effects of chemotherapy for malignant melanoma (MM). To evaluate whether dacarbazine, nimustine hydrochloride and vincristine sulfate (DAV) therapy for MM related to t-MDS or not, a retrospective analysis was performed.

Interval sentinel lymph nodes in patients with cutaneous melanoma: a single-institution study in Japan.

Interval sentinel lymph nodes (ISLN) are defined as the lymph nodes located between the primary melanoma and anatomically well-defined lymph nodal basins. It was reported that the ISLN appeared to be at the same metastatic risk as sentinel lymph nodes (SLN) in the traditional nodal basins. This study aimed to examine the incidence and metastatic risk of the ISLN in melanoma patients.

Dermoscopic evaluation of vascular structures of various skin tumors in Japanese patients.

Dermoscopic analysis of skin tumor has been mainly focused on pigmented structures. Recently, several different morphological types of vessels were found to be well associated with pigmented or non-pigmented skin tumors in white subjects. Therefore, the recognition of such vascular structures has been applied for diagnostic purposes.

A case of peripheral neuropathy and skin ulcer in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis after a single infusion of tocilizumab.

We report a case of peripheral neuropathy and skin ulcer in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who received tocilizumab. A 65-year-old woman with a 20-year history of RA participated in a tocilizumab clinical trial. She received a single dose of 8 mg/kg tocilizumab intravenously.

A pilot study of human interferon beta gene therapy for patients with advanced melanoma by in vivo transduction using cationic liposomes.

Background: Cationic liposomes containing the human interferon beta (HuIFNbeta) gene (IAB-1) was used for the clinical trial for glioma patients. HuIFNbeta gene therapy showed much higher anti-tumor activity compared with the administration of HuIFNbeta protein for melanoma. These results suggest that HuIFNbeta gene therapy is an attractive strategy for the treatment of melanoma.

A case of hypersensitivity syndrome induced by methimazole for Graves' disease.

Drug-induced hypersensitivity syndrome is one of the most severe forms of drug eruption and is characterized by high fever and multiorgan involvement. Reactivation of human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6) or cytomegalovirus (CMV) has been suggested to be involved in this syndrome, although the exact role of these viruses remains elusive. We report the case of a 50-year-old Japanese male with Graves' disease who developed hypersensitivity syndrome caused by the antithyroid drug methimazole (MMI).

Establishment of tyrosinase sequence database in normally pigmented Indians and Japanese for rapid determination of novel mutations.

Background: Many mutations of the tyrosinase gene have been reported in oculocutaneous albinism type I (OCA1) patient. In the future, a greater number of novel mutations will be found as the search for pathological mutations in the tyrosinase genes of OCA patients from various ethnic origins. For rapid determination in future whether an observed mutation is a polymorphism or a novel pathological one, sequence databases of the gene of various ethnic people are needed.