Toxic epidermal necrolysis and Steven-Johnson syndrome in oncologic patients

G. Gravante, D. Delogu*, M. Marianetti**, G. Esposito**, A. Montone**

General Surgery Department, University of Rome Tor Vergata – Rome (Italy)
*University “La Sapienza” of Rome, Rome (Italy)
**Burn Centre, S. Eugenio Hospital – Rome (Italy)

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• Oncology

Abstract. – Background and Objectives: We reviewed our case-load of patients with Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN) and analysed this oncologic disease in order to define the prevalence of this comorbidity and find eventual clinical and prognostic differences, specific of this subgroup of patients.
Materials and Methods: We reviewed charts from January 1995 to December 2005. Only those patients with a TEN diagnosis proved with an histologic examination were included. Causative drugs, symptoms, management and outcome were recorded and analysed.
Results: We found 32 patients with TEN and 9 of them (28%) had also cancer. The comparison among oncologic vs. the rest of patients showed no significant differences in age, delay of referral, % surface area epidermal detachment, blood chemistry, immunoglobulins therapy and bacterial isolation of species throughout the recovery (p > 0.05).
Conclusions: Oncologic diseases were the most frequent comorbidities in our series. There were no differences in the length of stay, duration of disease or mortality between patients with and without cancer. However, due to the small number of patients, future larger prospective studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

Corresponding Author: Gianpiero Gravante, MD; e-mail: ggravante@hotmail.com