Our study suggests that the severity of acne manifestation in adult women is not determined by androgen production.

Standard screening of melanoma patients is a useful tool for predicting outcome of patients, however, an instant methodology for exact detection of subclinical disease or monitoring treatment response is under investigation.Detection of circulating melanoma cells is, therefore, a possible novel promising staging method. However, inconsistent data on method sensitivity and on the predicted patient outcome has been shown repeatedly.Recently, a multimarker real-time RT-PCR methodology for quantification of five melanoma markers Melan-A, gp 100, MAGE-3, MIA and tyrosinase was described by our group. In the current prospective trial, blood specimens of 65 patients with AJCC stage IIB-III cutaneous melanoma after surgery were periodically examined. In the above group, 27 % of subjects relapsed during the study. Prior to the disease progression we could observe a statistically significant tumor marker elevation in previous 0 to 9 months in all patients with clinical relapse. MAGE-3 became the most sensitive progression marker. During progression, three concordant positive markers were seen in 39 % of patients, followed by two concordant positive markers in 28 % and 1 marker in 33 %.This study supports the use of a multimarker real-time RT-PCR as a disease progression predictor. The dynamic assessment of serially obtained blood specimens represents a useful method for early metastasis detection and treatment response of melanoma patients. (Keio J Med 57 (1) : 57 -64, March 2008)

Cutaneous angiosarcoma of the face and scalp is a rare malignant vascular tumor that affects mostly Caucasian elderly males. At present, connections concerning the etiology of this neoplasm with radiation therapy, exposure to environmental carcinogens and chronic lymphedema have been described. Due to the difficult histologic evaluation, high local recurrence and tendency to early metastasing, angiosarcoma poses generally a very poor prognosis. We report the case of an 80-year-old patient who experienced successful removal of large, exophytic growing angiosarcoma of the face achieved with radiotherapy with long-term relapse-free survival.

We report two cases of the SAPHO syndrome (synovitis, acne conglobata, pustulosis palmoplantaris, hyperostosis and osteitis). This syndrome has been published in the pediatric and rheumatological literature in recent years.