<b><i>Background:</i></b> Pemphigus is an autoimmune bullous disease affecting the skin and mucous membranes. Associated nail involvement is underestimated and is characterized by a variety of clinical manifestations. Our aim was to describe the clinical aspects of nail involvement during pemphigus. <b><i>Patients and Methods:</i></b> A retrospective study was conducted of patients with pemphigus over a period of 12 years. The diagnosis of pemphigus was based on clinical and immunopathological data. Clinical data were collected from patient records prior to initiation of treatment. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Overall,141 cases of pemphigus were collected. Of these, 60 patients had nail involvement. After eliminating fungal origin, we selected 37 patients in our study. The main clinical forms were paronychia and dystrophy. Two cases of destruction of the nail apparatus were found in patients with pemphigus vegetans. The disease was bilateral in 11 cases (29.7%). The presence of ungual involvement was correlated with severity of pemphigus, particularly severe oral disease (<i>p</i> = 0.002). <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Nail lesions were polymorphic in our patients. These signs show accumulated inflammation of the nail after a long evolution of the disease. Nail involvement may precede, be concomitant, or follow the mucocutaneous lesions of pemphigus and be a sign of severity or relapse of the disease.
Advanced melanoma patients who failed anti‐PD‐1 therapy have limited options. We analyzed a cohort of 133 advanced melanoma patients receiving anti‐PD‐1 monotherapy in a referral center between April 2015 and December 2017, and included the 26 patients with confirmed progressive (PD) or stable disease who received additional radiotherapy with an unmodified anti‐PD‐1 mAb regimen. Tumor evaluations were done on radiated and nonradiated (RECIST 1.1) lesions, with abscopal effect defined as a partial (PR) or complete response (CR) outside radiated fields. Primary endpoint was the CR + PR rate in radiated + nonradiated lesions. Secondary endpoints were progression‐free survival (PFS), melanoma‐specific survival (MSS) and safety. First late radiotherapy, consisting of hypofractionated radiotherapy (3–5 sessions, 20–26 Gy), standard palliative radiotherapy or brain radiosurgery was begun after a median of 6.3 months of anti‐PD‐1 in 23, 2 and 1 patient(s), respectively. Best response was 8 (31%) CR, 2 (8%) profound PR allowing surgical resection of remaining metastases and 16 (62%) PD. Abscopal effect was seen in 35% of patients. Median PFS and MSS since anti‐PD‐1 initiation was 15.2 [95% CI: 8.0 not achieved (na)] and 35.3 [95% CI: 18.5 na] months, respectively. PFS curves seemed to achieve a plateau. We discontinued anti‐PD‐1 therapy in 9/10 of patients with no residual evaluable disease and observed one relapse after a median of 10 months off anti‐PD1‐therapy. No unusual adverse event was recorded. Limitations of the study include its retrospective nature and limited size. Hypofractionated radiotherapy may enhance anti‐PD1 monotherapy efficacy in patients who previously failed anti‐PD‐1 therapy. Controlled studies are needed.
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