Immune checkpoint inhibition and targeted therapy for melanoma: A patient-oriented cross-sectional comparative multicentre study.

BACKGROUND: Choosing the adequate systemic treatment for melanoma is driven by clinical parameters and personal preferences. OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of the impact of disease and treatment on the daily life of patients receiving systemic therapy for melanoma. METHODS: A German-wide, cross-sectional comparative study was conducted at 13 specialized skin cancer centres from 08/2020 to 03/2021. A questionnaire was distributed to assess patients' perception of disease and symptoms, the impact of their current treatment on quality of life (QOL) and activities, adverse events (AEs), therapeutic visits, as well as believe in and satisfaction with their current systemic melanoma treatment. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) were rated on a continuous numerical rating scale or selected from a given list. RESULTS: Four hundred and fourteen patients with systemic melanoma therapy were included. 359 (87%) received immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) and 55 (13%) targeted therapy (TT). About 1/3 of patients were adjuvantly treated, the remaining because of unresectable/metastatic melanoma. In subgroup analyses, only in the adjuvant setting, TT patients reported a significant decrease in their treatment associated QOL compared to patients with ICI (p = 0.02). Patients with TT were 1.9 times more likely to report AEs than patients with ICI, a difference being significant just for the adjuvant setting (p = 0.01). ICI treatment intervals differed significantly between adjuvant and unresectable/metastatic setting (p = 0.04), though all patients, regardless of their specific ICI drug, evaluated their treatment frequency as adequate. TT patients with dabrafenib/trametinib (n = 37) or encorafenib/binimetinib (n = 15) did not differ regarding the strain of daily pill intake. Patients older than 63 years rated various PROs better than younger patients. CONCLUSIONS: Patients evaluated their treatment mainly positively. ICI might be preferred over TT regarding QOL and patient-reported AEs in the adjuvant setting. Older melanoma patients appeared to be less impacted by their disease and more satisfied with their treatment.

Metastatic Crohn's disease: an underestimated entity.

Cutaneous metastatic Crohn's disease (MCD) is a rare but challenging dermatologic manifestation of Crohn's disease. It is histologically defined as the presence of non-caseating granulomas at skin sites separated from and non-contiguous to the gastrointestinal tract. Cutaneous metastatic Crohn's disease should be distinguished from the much more frequent contiguous cutaneous manifestations of Crohn's disease that present at perianal or, less common, peristomal sites with direct extension from the intestine to the adjacent skin. Versatile clinical presentation and the fact that occurrence can predate the initial diagnosis of Crohn's disease may lead to misdiagnosis, delayed treatment and underreporting. As case numbers are small and randomized controlled studies on management are lacking, the therapeutic approach remains challenging and is often unsatisfactory. We here performed a systematic literature search identifying 264 published pediatric and adult cases of MCD and additionally report three of our own cases. Our review summarizes clinical characteristics, putative etiopathology, histologic findings, differential diagnoses and treatment options for MCD.

Dermal phospho-alpha-synuclein deposits confirm REM sleep behaviour disorder as prodromal Parkinson's disease.

Phosphorylated alpha-synuclein (p-alpha-syn) deposits, one of the neuropathological hallmarks of Parkinson's disease (PD), have recently been detected in dermal nerve fibres in PD patients with good specificity and sensitivity. Here, we studied whether p-alpha-syn may serve as a biomarker in patients with a high risk of developing PD, such as those with REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD). We compared the presence and distribution of p-alpha-syn deposits in dermal nerve fibres in 18 patients with RBD, 25 patients with early PD and 20 normal controls. Skin biopsy was taken at C7, Th10, and the upper and lower leg. Presynaptic dopamine transporter imaging using FP-CIT-SPECT was performed in all patients with RBD and in 11 patients with PD. All RBD patients underwent olfactory function testing. The likelihood ratio (LR) for prodromal PD was calculated for each patient based on published research criteria. Skin serial sections were assessed by double-immunofluorescence labelling with antibodies to pSer129-alpha-syn under blinded conditions. P-alpha-syn was visualized in 10/18 patients with RBD (sensitivity of 55.6%) and in 20/25 early PD patients (sensitivity of 80%) but in none of the controls (specificity of 100%). The percentage of dermal structures innervated by p-alpha-syn-positive fibres was negatively correlated with dopamine transporter binding in the FP-CIT-SPECT (ρ = -0.377, p = 0.048), with olfactory function (ρ = -0.668, p = 0.002), and positively correlated with the total LR for RBD to present prodromal PD (ρ = 0.531, p = 0.023). Dermal p-alpha-syn can be considered a peripheral histopathological marker of synucleinopathy and can be detected in a subgroup of RBD patients presumably representing prodromal PD. Dermal p-alpha-syn is detectable in RBD patients without PD motor symptoms, thereby stratifying a patient group that is of great interest for clinical trials testing disease-modifying drugs.