Electrochemotherapy As Promising Treatment Option in Rare Recurrent Cutaneous Neoplasm of the Scalp: Case Report of an Elderly Patient

Overview

Journal Case Rep Oncol Med

Publisher Wiley

Specialty Oncology

Date 2019 May 4

PMID 31049235

Citations 1

Authors

Edoardo Crimini

Michela Roberto

Valter Degli Effetti

Paolo Marchetti

Andrea Botticelli

Francesca Matilde Schipilliti

Giulia Arrivi

Federica Mazzuca

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Atypical fibroxanthoma (AFX) is a tumor that commonly presents on the head or neck in older individuals. Making a definitive diagnosis of AFX is challenging, and frequently, it is hard to distinguish from pleomorphic dermal sarcoma (PDS). There are no clear recommendations regarding the treatment of AFX, but an extensive surgery is actually considered the best option. Electrochemotherapy (ECT) is a novel therapeutic modality of local treatment in which the application of electrical pulses, enhancing cell membrane permeability, allows greater intracellular accumulation of chemotherapy drugs in the skin or subcutaneous tumors.

Case Report: We report a case of a 78-year-old male affected by a red, ulcerative, dermal, scalp nodule, which was treated with ECT with a complete clinical response. We have also reported literature data on this topic.

Results: In this case, ECT showed to be an effective and safe treatment for recurrent neoplasms of the head and neck, considering the complete response obtained and the absence of disease relapse after two years.

Conclusion: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report that shows great clinical results using ECT after surgery in relapsed AFX/PDS. However, more studies are needed to confirm our results.

Citing Articles

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Complex Dermal Sarcomas Ensures an Optimal Clinical Outcome.

Trostrup H, Bigdeli A, Krogerus C, Kneser U, Schmidt G, Schmidt V Cancers (Basel). 2022; 14(7).

PMID: 35406465 PMC: 8996894. DOI: 10.3390/cancers14071693.

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