How dermatopathology can be useful in the comprehension of therapeutic and side effects of novel biologically targeted therapies

Dermatology and dermatopathology could provide some useful tools in the management of anti-EGFR treatments from two points of view: -clinical symptoms such as rash can be the signal of effectiveness of treatments by cetuximab,ABX-EGF and erlonitib. -immunochemistry on skin samples could give informations on Ki67 and p27 kip1 expression in the skin during treatment, which is probably the reflect of "what's going on"in the tumor. Epidermal growth factor reception (EGFR) inhibitors have become an essential part of the standard treatment for many types of cancers such as colorectal, head and neck, lung, breast, pancreatic, sarcoma, ovarian, oesophageal and renal carcinoma. EGFR is mainly expressed in the basal layer of the skin, where it enhances epidermal growth and wound healing and mediates an inhibition of differentiation. However, as it is expressed in many solid tumors, its therapeutic blockade, even if beneficial for the patient, can't have no consequence on the epidermis. The dermatologic effects of the anti-EGFR can be considered from two points of view: I. The clinical side effects, that can be severe or even life threatening and their management-Dermatopathologic aspects will be considered. II. The dermatologic reaction that could be considered as a simple, visual grading of the efficiency of the drug allowing discriminating potent "responders" to the other ones. © 2012 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.SCOPUS: ch.b