Anthony M. Rossi, MD

Dr. Rossi is a Fellow in Procedural Dermatology and Mohs Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Weill Cornell/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, both in New York, New York.

Dr. Rossi reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

The September 2012 issue of Dermatologic Surgery (2012;38:1497-1505) featured a randomized double-blind study to compare the safety, efficacy, and dose-response relationship of 2 doses of onabotulinumtoxinA for the treatment of hyperdynamic perioral rhytides. Sixty female participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either 7.5 or 12.0 U of onabotulinumtoxinA at 4 perioral sites. Participants were then assessed at weeks 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20. The severity of the perioral lines and participant satisfaction were assessed at all visits.

Lorraine L. Rosamilia, MD

Dr. Rosamilia is from the Department of Dermatology, Geisinger Health System, State College, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rosamilia reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

The Journal of Investigative Dermatology recently published a Canadian population-based cohort study outlining the risk for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with isotretinoin use. It examined approximately 47,000 acne patients treated with isotretinoin, 185,000 patients treated with topical acne medications, and more than 1,500,000 untreated patients aged 12 to 29 years during a 12-year period. The authors concluded there was no primary association between isotretinoin and IBD but that subsets of patients on isotretinoin or topical acne therapy could be at risk; therefore, acne itself was postulated as the link.

Anthony M. Rossi, MD

Dr. Rossi is a Fellow in Procedural Dermatology and Mohs Surgery, Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Weill Cornell/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, both in New York, New York.

Dr. Rossi reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

The September 2012 issue of Dermatologic Surgery (2012;38:1477-1489) featured a randomized controlled trial of 4 different fractionated ablative lasers used in the treatment of facial photoaging. The authors utilized 4 different lasers on 12 participants, with the treatment area being the face (divided into 4 quadrants). The lasers tested included the Fraxel Repair (Solta Medical Inc) fractionated CO₂ 10,600-nm laser, Active and Deep FX (Total FX; Lumenis) fractionated CO₂ 10,600-nm laser, Quadralase (Candela) fractionated CO₂ 10,600-nm laser, and Pearl Fractional (Fx; Cutera) fractionated yttrium-scandium-gallium-garnet (YSGG) 2790-nm laser.

Kavita Mariwalla, MD

Dr. Mariwalla is the Director of Dermatologic Surgery, Continuum Cancer Centers of New York, New York.

Dr. Mariwalla reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

BMJ recently published a meta-analysis (2012;345:e5909) correlating indoor tanning use with nonmelanoma skin cancer. Although dermatologists have long known of this link, this analysis is important because it gives us concrete numbers that we can provide to our patients. The authors looked at 12 studies including 9328 cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer.

Ted Rosen, MD

Dr. Rosen is Professor of Dermatology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.

Dr. Rosen reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

It is uncommon for a virtual cascade of papers to simultaneously disclose potentially game-changing medical information, especially when physician authors practice in markedly disparate parts of the world. Nonetheless, 2012 brought 3 distinct papers that sharply call into question the accuracy of the standard punch biopsy in determining the subtype of basal cell carcinomas (BCCs).

Kavita Mariwalla, MD

Dr. Mariwalla is the Director of Dermatologic Surgery, Continuum Cancer Centers of New York, New York.

Dr. Mariwalla reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

A recent study in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has attracted attention in the last few weeks. The authors studied 781,907 women in New South Wales, Australia, from 1994 to 2008 (approximately 1.3 million pregnancies) and found an increase in cancer diagnoses during pregnancy. The results showed that from 1994 to 1997 the crude incidence rate of pregnancy-associated cancer increased from 112.3 to 191.5 per 100,000 pregnancies. Because the study was conducted in Australia, of course one of the most common cancers was melanoma.

Philip R. Cohen, MD

Dr. Cohen is from the University of Houston Health Center, Texas; the Department of Dermatology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; and the Department of Dermatology, University of Texas Medical School, Houston.

Dr. Cohen reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

The June 2012 issue of Annals of Oncology (2012;23[suppl 5]:v6-v11) featured an abstract (L6.5) from the 4th WIN (Worldwide Innovative Networking in personalized cancer medicine) symposium on the efficacy of biomarkers and personalized cancer therapy that took place in Paris, France, on June 28 and 29, 2012. The authors provided an update on using personalized medicine for the treatment of a large cohort of oncology patients with advanced cancer. Complete molecular profiling of the patient’s tumor was performed and the patient was treated with matched therapy, when available, directed against the detected molecular aberration. The results were measured as a function of time to treatment failure and supported the use of a personalized molecular approach for patients with cancer.

Lorraine L. Rosamilia, MD

Dr. Rosamilia is from the Department of Dermatology, Geisinger Health System, State College, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rosamilia reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

On June 1, Dermatology (2012;224:251-256) published a study outlining the risk for herpes zoster in patients exposed to biologic agents. The incidence and clinical features of zoster were examined in a single cohort of 1220 patients taking biologics for psoriasis and other US Food and Drug Administration–approved indications. There was indeed an increased incidence of zoster, particularly in patients older than 60 years, but it did not reach statistical significance. However, the presence of severe and prolonged skin involvement, multidermatomal distribution, and persistent postherpetic neuralgia was common.

Kavita Mariwalla, MD

Dr. Mariwalla is the Director of Dermatologic Surgery, Continuum Cancer Centers of New York, New York.

Dr. Mariwalla reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

On July 9, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released recommendations for the use of the sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in patients with melanoma (Journal of Clinical Oncology). The SLN typically is the first draining lymph node to which melanoma cells are most likely to spread, and a positive node certainly has implications for staging. However, sending a patient to have this node mapped has been very inconsistent among practitioners. It also comes at a risk: an additional procedure in the operating room and the chance of possible lymphedema in the area where the node was harvested.

Jonathan I. Silverberg, MD, PhD, MPH

Dr. Silverberg is from the Department of Dermatology, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, New York.

Dr. Silverberg reports no conflicts of interest in relation to this post.

A May 4, 2012, Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article discussed the increased usage of observational studies in clinical research despite being prone to methodological and statistical biases and possibly flawed results. Observational studies are commonly used to study associations between various exposures, such as environmental risk factors or treatment, and disease outcomes. Observational studies differ from prospectively controlled studies in that participants are assigned to an exposure or treatment group that is not controlled in the study. Typically, data are retrospectively collected from sources ranging from small single-site chart reviews to international epidemiologic databases and comprehensive health management organization cohorts. The WSJ article featured 2 studies from 2010: one published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2010;304:657-663) and the other in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)(2010;341:C4444) on the use of osteoporosis drugs and risk for esophageal cancer. The studies found entirely conflicting results despite being performed on the exact same database.