Lichen sclerosus is a relatively common chronic inflammatory skin disease that predominantly affects the anogenital area. Accumulating evidence indicates that lichen sclerosus in women may be associated with other autoimmune disease, whereas this association seems to lack in male patients. We retrospectively evaluated the prevalence of autoimmune diseases and serological parameters indicative for autoimmunity in male and female patients with lichen sclerosus. Of the 532 patients (396 women, 136 men; 500 adults, 32 children; mean age: 49 years; range 1-89 years; female:male ratio 3:1), 452 (85%) had genital and 80 (15%) had extragenital disease. In women, lichen sclerosus was significantly more often associated with at least one autoimmune disease as compared to men (odds ratio [OR] 4.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.9-9.6; p<0.0001). Moreover, female patients with lichen sclerosus had sinificantly more often associated autoimmune thyroid diseases (OR 4.7, 95% CI 1.8-11.9; p<0.0002), antithyroid-antibodies (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.1-6.5; p=0.023), and elevated autoantibodies (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.9-9.3; p<0.0001) as compared to male patients. This observation is suggestive for a different pathogenetic background in male and female patients.

Our findings argue against a pathogenic role for MCPyV, HPyV6, HPyV7, TSV and HPyV9 in the analysed types of non-Merkel cell carcinoma skin cancer.

We observed dysregulation of Drosha and Dicer expression in epithelial tumors when compared to healthy control samples. Therefore, we favor the hypothesis that miRNAs are involved in the carcinogenesis of epithelial skin cancer.

To evaluate Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) DNA prevalence and load among men with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (hereafter referred to as HIV-positive men) and among healthy male control subjects.

It is tempting to speculate that hBD-1 and RNase-7 might act as tumour suppressors while hBD-2 and psoriasin might act in the opposite way as promoters of tumour progression. Further investigations should clarify whether hBD-2 and hBD-3 could be potential targets for the development of pharmacological therapy.

CO(2) LA and PDT are both effective therapy options for multiple AK, yet PDT seems to be superior in terms of AK reduction and participants' and investigators' overall satisfaction.

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Etanercept combined with NB-UVB is more effective than etanercept monotherapy at 6 weeks as demonstrated at a clinical, histological and immunohistological level. However, as there is an increased risk for malignancy by treatment with TNF-α blockers alone or in combination with phototherapy, we recommend to restrict this highly effective combination to short periods of time, for instance to obtain a quicker response, and to avoid long-term treatment.