Evaluating Lichen Sclerosus in Phimosis: Insights From a Multidisciplinary Retrospective Study.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of lichen sclerosus (LS) in male patients undergoing circumcision for phimosis, emphasising the significance of a multidisciplinary approach in the early diagnosis and management of this condition.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on 841 male patients who underwent circumcision at a high-volume medical centre between 2001 and 2023. Data were collected on clinical diagnoses made by both dermatologists and urologists, along with the corresponding histological findings.

Amitriptyline for the treatment of vulvodynia in patients with vulvar lichen sclerosus: a case series of 20 patients.

Vulvar Lichen Sclerosus (VLS) is a chronic autoimmune disease that often leads to vulvodynia, a debilitating chronic pain condition in the vulvar region. Treating vulvodynia in the context of VLS presents a significant therapeutic challenge due to the lack of standardized protocols. This article presents a case series of 20 women treated with amitriptyline for vulvodynia secondary to VLS, accompanied by an extended review of the literature.

Efficacy of Alexandrite Laser in the Treatment of Pigmented Actinic Keratoses: A Pivotal Study.

Objectives: Pigmented actinic keratoses (PAKs), a pigmented variant of actinic keratosis, present diagnostic challenges due to their resemblance to both benign and malignant lesions. Conventional therapies have inconsistent outcomes and may cause undesirable side effects. This study investigates the efficacy of the Alexandrite laser, a pulsed laser with selective melanin absorption, for PAK treatment.

Evaluation of the incidence of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus and systemic sclerosis.

Background: The incidence of skin cancer in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and systemic sclerosis (SSc) has only been investigated with retrospective studies enrolling a low number of patients. The aims of our study were to assess the incidence of skin cancer in two large cohorts of patients, one with SLE and the other with SSc and investigating possible risk factors.

Methods: Ninety SLE, 53 SSc patients and 392 control subjects were enrolled.

When the diagnosis is written in the DNA: a case of erythropoietic protoporphyria in a patient with a chromosome-18 deletion.

In this case study, we describe a 21-year-old man with erythropoietic protoporphyria who sought medical attention in April 2022 for diffuse edema and erythema of the hands. These symptoms had been present since childhood and usually occurred soon after sun exposure. The patient's medical history showed that chromosome 18's long arm had partially deleted.

A Symptomatic Mucinous Cystic Neoplasm of the Mesentery: A Case Report.

Mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCNs) are rare tumors primarily observed in the pancreas but occasionally found in other locations such as the retroperitoneum, ovary, liver, and spleen. These neoplasms are histologically classified based on the degree of dysplasia, with some associated with invasive carcinoma. Colorectal surgeons infrequently encounter MCNs.

Influence of regression, its extent and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes on sentinel node status, relapse, and survival in a 10-year retrospective study of melanoma patients.

This case-control study seeks to investigate the influence of histological findings, specifically regression, its extent and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TILs), on result of sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, 5-year melanoma-specific survival (MSS), and relapse-free survival (RFS). We included all patients with cutaneous melanoma who underwent SLN biopsy at the Melanoma Center of the University of Brescia, following the Italian Association of Medical Oncology National guidelines from January 2008 to August 2018. Regression and its extent (<75 or ≥75%) and the presence of TILs were reevaluated by a trained dermatopathologist, adhering to the 2017 College of American Pathologists Cancer Protocol for Skin Melanoma.

Cutaneous Syncytial Myoepithelioma with Positive CD34 Immunohistochemical Staining: An Unusual Tumor and a Challenging Diagnosis.

Cutaneous syncytial myoepithelioma (CSM) is a rare type of cutaneous neoplasm that typically presents as a solitary and well-circumscribed nodule on the skin. It predominantly occurs on the upper and lower extremities of adult patients. Immunohistochemically, CSM is characterized by the co-expression of smooth muscle and epithelial markers.

Definition of the Clinical Characteristics of Patients with Moderate and Severe Atopic Dermatitis for Whom Narrow-Band UVB (NB-UVB) and Medium-Dose UVA1 Phototherapies Are Still Valuable Treatment Options at the Age of Biologics.

Narrow-band (NB) UVB and UVA1 have been successfully used for the treatment of atopic dermatitis (AD) since the 1980s, but the clinical indications for their use "at the age of biologics" remain to be assessed. From 2013 to 2017, 145 patients underwent a first treatment cycle with phototherapy. They achieved a median final EASI score of 9.

Surgical margin mapping for lentigo maligna and lentigo maligna melanoma: traditional technique (visual inspection with dermoscopy) versus combined paper tape and reflectance confocal microscopy technique.

Background: The detection of subclinical margin in lentigo maligna/lentigo maligna melanoma (LM/LMM) can be challenging for the dermatologist. Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) enables to observe in vivo atypical melanocytes beyond the clinical margins. The aim of this study is to establish which of these methods (clinical examination and dermoscopy versus "Paper tape - RCM") is more precise to define the lesion margin and to reduce the number of re-intervention and overtreatments in cosmetically sensitive areas.

Bath-PUVA still represents a valuable treatment option for the subsets of psoriatic patients who are not eligible to or rejecting systemic treatments and are not responsive to NB-UVB phototherapy.

Background: Photochemotherapy with bathwater delivery of psoralens plus UVA exposures (bath-PUVA) is mainly used for those psoriatic patients who are not responsive to narrowband (NB)-UVB phototherapy and oral-PUVA therapy and belong to two categories (1) patients with psoriasis without systemic comorbidities who do not need long-term continuous treatment and (2) patients who have contraindications to immunosuppressive drugs and oral-PUVA or refuse systemic drugs, including oral ingestion of psoralens, for personal reasons. However, it is not known how many patients belong to the second group and how much bath-PUVA is effective and safe for them.

Methods: We have reviewed the treatment results of a cohort of 120 patients with clinical indication to bath-PUVA for the above-mentioned reasons between 2010 and 2019.

Pretreatment with an Aerosol Foam Containing Calcipotriene and Betamethasone Strongly Improves the Efficacy of Narrow-Band UVB Phototherapy.

Background: Narrow-band (NB) UVB has been combined with a number of topical treatments. However, there have been no specific data regarding treatment results of a fixed combination of calcipotriene 50 μg/g plus betamethasone 0.5 mg/g aerosol foam (Cal/BD) combined with NB-UVB phototherapy so far.

Randomized Clinical Trial of Conventional versus Indoor Daylight Photodynamic Therapy for Treatment of Actinic Cheilitis.

Introduction: Actinic cheilitis (AC) is the biologic precursor of invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the vermilion, and different treatment options have been investigated, but their efficacy is hampered by local inflammation, pain and slow recovery. Daylight photodynamic therapy (dl-PDT) has been demonstrated to represent a valuable treatment option for AC, but its feasibility is limited by weather conditions and latitude.

Methods: Our study proposed to compare the efficacy and tolerability of conventional photodynamic therapy (c-PDT) and indoor daylight photodynamic therapy (idl-PDT) with a white LED lamp for the treatment of AC.

Circulating Tumor DNA in Precision Oncology and Its Applications in Colorectal Cancer.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a component of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) that is shed by malignant tumors into the bloodstream and other bodily fluids. ctDNA can comprise up to 10% of a patient's cfDNA depending on their tumor type and burden. The short half-life of ctDNA ensures that its detection captures tumor burden in real-time and offers a non-invasive method of repeatedly evaluating the genomic profile of a patient's tumor.