Signet ring cell melanoma, Brenner sign, and elevated vascular endothelial growth factor

Eponyms that honor Jewish dermatologists: A celebration and a remembrance, Part three: Jewish physicians who practiced during the Holocaust and in its aftermath

Part III of this contribution continues to celebrate the many contributions that Jewish physicians have made to advance the specialty of dermatology, as reflected by eponyms that honor their names. Part I covered the years before 1933, a highly productive period of creativity by Jewish dermatologists, especially in Germany and Austria. The lives of 17 Jewish physicians and their eponyms were described in Part I. Part II focused on the years of 1933 to 1945, when the Nazis rose to power in Europe, and how their anti-Semitic genocidal policies affected leading Jewish dermatologists caught within the Third Reich. Fourteen Jewish physicians and their eponyms are discussed in Part II. Part III continues the remembrance of the Holocaust era by looking at the careers and eponyms of an additional 13 Jewish physicians who contributed to dermatology during the period of 1933 to 1945. Two of these 13 physicians, pathologist Ludwig Pick (1868-1944) and neurologist Arthur Simons (1877-1942), perished in the Holocaust. They are remembered by the following eponyms of interest to dermatologists: Lubarsch-Pick syndrome, Niemann-Pick disease, and Barraquer-Simons syndrome. Four of the 13 Jewish physicians escaped the Nazis: Felix Pinkus (1868-1947), Herman Pinkus (1905-1985), Arnault Tzanck (1886-1954), and Erich Urbach (1893-1946). Eponyms that honor their names include nitidus Pinkus, fibroepithelioma of Pinkus, Tzanck test, Urbach-Wiethe disease, Urbach-Koningstein technique, Oppenheim-Urbach disease, and extracellular cholesterinosis of Karl-Urbach. The other seven Jewish physicians lived outside the reach of the Nazis, in either Canada, the United States, or Israel. Their eponyms are discussed in this contribution. Part III also discusses eponyms that honor seven contemporary Jewish dermatologists who practiced dermatology after 1945 and who continue the nearly 200 years of Jewish contribution to the development of the specialty. They are A. Bernard Ackerman (1936-2008), Irwin M. Braverman, Sarah Brenner, Israel Chanarin, Maurice L. Dorfman, Dan Lipsker, and Ronni Wolf. Their eponyms are Ackerman syndrome, Braverman sign, Brenner sign, Chanarin-Dorfman syndrome, Lipsker criteria of the Schnitzler syndrome, and Wolf's isotopic response.

Cutaneous signs in dermatological diseases; An overview

Cutaneous signs in dermatology are pathognomonic or diagnostic for certain conditions. A knowledge of these signs is a useful skill, which must not be forgotten in the recent trend towards relying on molecular biology and other investigative tools including histological findings to make a diagnosis. The aim of this review is to summarize all cutaneous signs in dermatology in a systematic way that would benefit dermatologists, trainee or experienced, in identifying diseases and sharpening their clinical skills. A keyword search for the terms “cutaneous signs,” “sign” AND “dermatology” was conducted through PUBMED, Google, and the major textbooks in dermatology (i.e., Rooks Textbook of Dermatology; Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine and Dermatology). References were searched thoroughly for all cutaneous signs described. One hundred and nineteen signs were noted and summarized under the following categories: autoimmune, infective, inflammatory, neoplastic, genetic, trauma/miscellaneous. This review would serve as a good reference for those wanting to improve their clinical acumen in diagnosing dermatological disease.

Behaviour of four different B16 murine melanoma cell sublines: C57BL/6J skin

Transplantable murine melanomas are well-established models for the study of experimental cancer therapies. The aim of this study was to explore the behaviour of four different B16 murine melanoma cell sublines after inoculation into C57BL/6J mice; and, more specifically to analyse skin changes, with respect to two specific parameters: clinical (tumour volume, melanin amount, erythema) and histological (H & E, S100, VEGF expression). Both non-invasive and invasive analysis showed that B164A5 is the most aggressive melanoma cell line for C57BL/6J's skin, followed by B16F10 and then by diminished aggressive growth pattern by the B16GMCSF and B16FLT3 cell lines.

Signet-ring cell melanoma with sentinel lymph node metastasis: A case report with immunohistochemical analysis and review of the clinicopathological features

Signet-ring cell melanoma is an extremely rare variant of malignant melanoma. A 68-year-old male presented with a black nodule on the left thigh. Histopathological examination revealed proliferation of sheet-like or variable-sized nests of atypical melanocytes. Neoplastic cells showing signet-ring cell appearance, characterized by the presence of eccentrically located enlarged nuclei and abundant pale cytoplasm, were also present. Immunohistochemically, the tumor cells were positive for S-100 protein, vimentin and Melan-A. Moreover, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway proteins were diffusely expressed. The current case report presents the 21st reported case of signet-ring cell melanoma. Analyses of the clinicopathological features revealed that this disease commonly affects middle-aged males and the presence of metastatic signet-ring cell melanoma with an unknown primary tumor. Immunohistochemical analyses of melanocytic markers have been useful for establishing the diagnosis of this type of disease, however, HMB-45 is occasionally found to be negative. In addition, the present case report is the first to analyze the expression of mTOR pathway proteins, which are central proteins involved in carcinogenesis and its inhibitor has been proposed as a therapeutic target for various types of tumor. Therefore, the mTOR inhibitor may also be a potential candidate for the treatment of this type of tumor.