Melanoma and sex hormones: Pathogenesis, progressive disease and response to treatments.

Cutaneous melanoma represents the fifth tumor in terms of incidence in young adults, with a major involvement of males than females. Despite the significant changes in available effective treatments for cutaneous melanoma, there is still a proportion of patients that do not benefit long-term disease control with immune checkpoint inhibitors and/or inhibitors, and eventually develop progressive disease. In addition to the emerging biomarkers under investigation to understand resistance to treatments, recent studies resumed the role of sex hormones (estrogens, progesterone and androgens) in melanoma patients.

Fatal Heart Failure Induced by Pazopanib in a Sarcoma Patient Previously Treated with Gemcitabine.

Gemcitabine is commonly used for various solid organ malignancies with rarely reported cardiac side effects such as cardiomyopathy. Pazopanib usually can cause arterial hypertension but cases of heart failure have recently been reported. We describe a case of fatal heart failure after treatment with gemcitabine and pazopanib in a 55-year-old female with sarcoma.