A single oral dose of 600,000 IU of cholecalciferol rapidly enhances 25(OH)D and reduces PTH in young people with vitamin D deficiency.

Imiquimod is an immune response modifier that stimulates the patient's own immune system to release various chemical substances, such as interferon and interleukin-12. Although, approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration since 1997 as a topical treatment for genital and perianal warts, investigators have found that this product may offer an alternative treatment for a wide variety of medical conditions, such as for actinic keratoses, molluscum contagiosum, genital herpes, and various skin tumours. Clinical trials are now demonstrating the beneficial effects that its administration may have in treating other immune-related, dermatologic disorders. Understanding the pharmacology of this kind of drug is another step to fully understanding the power of the human immune system. Local reactions occur most frequently and include itching, burning, pain, soreness, flaking, erosions, and crusting. Since, it is administered locally; only a small amount of drug should reach systemic circulation, if used correctly. However, uncommon systemic side effects have been reported including headache, flu-like symptoms, fatigue, nausea, and myalgia. This article reviews imiquimod use in dermatology including its off-label use, side effects, future developments, new molecules related to dermatology and relevant patents.

Brain metastases (BM) are one of the most frequent neurological complications of cancers. Melanoma is the third most common tumor to metastasize to the brain with a reported incidence of 10-40 %, and many patients have subclinical BM (>73 %). We computer-searched the clinical records of all our patients registered into a database to identify patients that presented or developed BM. A total of 49 patients with melanoma BM were included in our analysis. General time to brain metastases (TTBM) was 23 months. The nonparametric test between TTBM and the single variables showed an association between TTBM and Breslow thickness (p < 0.0076; Spearman's coefficient-0.411), ulceration (p = 0.0656; Spearman's coefficient-0.287) and positive sentinel lymph node (p < 0.0015; Spearman's coefficient-0.475). Performing multiple regression, positive SLN remained the only, statistically significant, predictive variable (p < 0.01). Regarding the first melanoma site, the axial sites were more likely to develop BM than peripheral ones (p < 0.001). The analysis of brain metastasis survival (BMS) with Kaplan-Meier curves has resulted in a median survival rate of 6 months (range 1-134 months) and was strongly related to response to treatment, number of parenchymal lesions, presence or absence of symptoms. The results of the current analysis revealed clinical and primary tumor characteristics associated with the development of BM, TTBM, and BMS. The SNL was found to be the strongest predictor for BM development.

In the absence of risk factors, thin melanomas (TM) present a long-term survival; however, recurrences may occur. We describe the predictive clinicopathological features of patients with metastatic TM. Kaplan-Meier product was performed for the survival analysis, while Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the effect of the clinicopathological features on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Median DFS of the entire cohort was 26 months and three patients developed late metastases. Nine patients developed extra-nodal metastases as first recurrence, while cases of positive sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) were not found. DFS and OS varied according to the clinicopathological features, but only ulceration remained the main statistical significance value. According to our results, a hypothetical use of SLNB in TM without other risk factors is not currently feasible. No consensus exists as to which patients with TM are at risk for metastases or late recurrences.

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