A B S T R A C T PurposePrimary care physicians (PCPs) constitute an appropriate target for new interventions and educational campaigns designed to increase skin cancer screening and prevention. The aim of this randomized study was to determine whether the adjunct of dermoscopy to the standard clinical examination improves the accuracy of PCPs to triage lesions suggestive of skin cancer. Patients and MethodsPCPs in Barcelona, Spain, and Naples, Italy, were given a 1-day training course in skin cancer detection and dermoscopic evaluation, and were randomly assigned to the dermoscopy evaluation arm or naked-eye evaluation arm. During a 16-month period, 73 physicians evaluated 2,522 patients with skin lesions who attended their clinics and scored individual lesions as benign or suggestive of skin cancer. All patients were re-evaluated by expert dermatologists at clinics for pigmented lesions. Referral accuracy of both PCP groups was calculated by their scores, which were compared to those tabulated for dermatologists. ResultsReferral sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were 54.1%, 71.3%, 11.3%, and 95.8%, respectively, in the naked-eye arm, and 79.2%, 71.8%, 16.1%, and 98.1%, respectively, in the dermoscopy arm. Significant differences were found in terms of sensitivity and negative predictive value (P ϭ .002 and P ϭ .004, respectively). Histopathologic examination of equivocal lesions revealed 23 malignant skin tumors missed by PCPs performing naked-eye observation and only six by PCPs using dermoscopy (P ϭ .002). ConclusionThe use of dermoscopy improves the ability of PCPs to triage lesions suggestive of skin cancer without increasing the number of unnecessary expert consultations. J Clin Oncol 24:1877-1882. © 2006 by American Society of Clinical Oncology INTRODUCTIONSkin cancer is the most common malignancy in whites and accounts for about one third of all cancers diagnosed per year.1 Melanoma is often lethal but can usually be cured if diagnosed early. Nonmelanoma skin cancer (including basal cell carcinoma [BCC] and squamous cell carcinoma [SCC]) is seldom lethal, but if advanced, can cause severe disfigurement. Early detection and treatment, therefore, is the best strategy to reduce mortality and morbidity associated with melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers, respectively.The clinical diagnosis of skin cancer is based on several morphologic features pertaining to the shape, elevation, surface, and color of the tumor. The simple morphologic features summarized by the asymmetry, border irregularity, color variegation, and diameter Ͼ 5 mm (ABCD) rule are currently widely used for diagnosing skin cancer, particularly melanoma.2 However, ABCD criteria achieve only 65% to 80% sensitivity. 3 The ABCD rule fails to recognize melanomas that are small (Ͻ 6 mm) 4 or that exhibit regular shape and homogeneous color. On the other hand, a variety of benign pigmented skin lesions mimic melanoma clinically, resulting in unnecessary excisions.For diagnosis of skin cancer, dermoscopy has be...

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) or nephrogenic fibrosing dermopathy is a rare fibrotic condition that presents in patients with a history of renal disease. The aetiology is unknown, but it has recently been proposed that gadolinium, a paramagnetic contrast agent, may be a trigger of this disease. We report three patients with NSF with a history of use of gadolinium in magnetic resonance angiography a few weeks before the onset of symptoms. In the future, gadolinium should probably be avoided as much as possible in renal insufficiency patients until its role in the development of NSF is clarified.

Pyoderma vegetans (PV) is an inflammatory dermatosis, characterized clinically by large exudative vegetating plaques, and histopathologically by epidermal pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia and dense inflammatory infiltrates. Although PV is a very rare condition, it is a chronic disorder that may accompany any systemic process that compromises immunity. Treatment is very difficult, and correction of predisposing causes may be useful. We present a 49-year-old woman affected by severe psoriatic arthritis since she was 19, with giant verrucous plaques on her lower limbs that had worsened progressively during the last 15 years. After ruling out other vegetating cutaneous disorders, PV was diagnosed in association with psoriasis. Despite numerous previous systemic and topical therapeutic attempts no response was observed. Etanercept was introduced, which resulted in a marked improvement within 3 weeks. Herein, we report a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge of the first case of PV associated with psoriasis that presented a good response to etanercept.

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