M.A. de Rie

Topical methyl aminolaevulinate photodynamic therapy in patients with basal cell carcinoma prone to complications and poor cosmetic outcome with conventional treatment

Background  Conventional treatment of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) causes morbidity and/or disfigurement in some patients because of the location (e.g. mid‐face) and size of the lesion.

Drug survival is not significantly different between biologics in patients with psoriasis vulgaris: a single‐centre database analysis

Drug survival depends on several factors such as dosing, effectiveness, quality‐of‐life improvement and safety, and could be seen as an overall marker for treatment success. Such data for biologics in psoriasis treatment are sparse.

Cyclosporin trough levels: is monitoring necessary during short‐term treatment in psoriasis? A systematic review and clinical data on trough levels

Summary Background Cyclosporin is an effective treatment for severe plaque psoriasis. Unfortunately, its use may be limited by time‐ and dose‐related nephrotoxicity. Serum trough levels may be useful for monitoring the risk of nephrotoxicity.

Vitiligo Area Scoring Index and Vitiligo European Task Force assessment: reliable and responsive instruments to measure the degree of depigmentation in vitiligo

Vitiligo is a common skin disorder causing depigmented macules that can impair a patients quality of life. Currently, there are no standardized outcome measures to assess the degree of depigmentation. Moreover, there is limited knowledge on the measurement properties of outcome measures in vitiligo.

Diagnostic accuracy of confocal microscopy imaging vs. punch biopsy for diagnosing and subtyping basal cell carcinoma

In vivo reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a promising non‐invasive skin imaging technique that could facilitate early diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) instead of routine punch biopsies. However, the clinical value and utility of RCM vs. a punch biopsy in diagnosing and subtyping BCC is unknown.

Is a punch biopsy reliable in subtyping basal cell carcinoma? A systematic review.

Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most prevalent type of skin cancer. Numerous studies have reported on the rising incidence of BCC causing a major burden on current health care systems (1) . Current management relies on the histopathological subtype of a punch biopsy and this becomes more and more relevant due to the increasing use of non-surgical treatments. However the reliability of a punch biopsy in subtyping BCC has been questioned. The aim of this systematic review was to judge the reliability of a punch biopsy in accurately subtyping primary BCC. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

One-stop-shop with confocal microscopy imaging vs. standard care for surgical treatment of basal cell carcinoma: an open-label, noninferiority, randomized controlled multicentre trial

Routine punch biopsies are considered to be standard care for diagnosing and subtyping basal cell carcinoma (BCC) when clinically suspected.

The role of phototherapy in the surgical treatment of vitiligo: a systematic review

Vitiligo is frequently treated with the combination of phototherapy and melanocyte transplantation. However, the additional benefit of phototherapy is unclear. Moreover, the optimal type and regimen of phototherapy are unknown. The objective of this systematic review was to identify whether phototherapy improves the outcome of melanocyte transplantation in vitiligo. We searched and screened for eligible studies in the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE and CENTRAL. We included all clinical studies investigating melanocyte transplantation combined with phototherapy. After screening and selection of abstracts and full‐texts, we found 39 eligible clinical studies with 1624 patients. The eligible studies investigated several phototherapy modalities, such as NBUVB (n = 9), PUVA (n = 19), UVA (n = 1), MEL (n = 4) and active sunlight exposure (n = 9). Four studies directly compared phototherapy versus no phototherapy and two studies confirmed the benefit of phototherapy for melanocyte transplantation. We found no significant differences in repigmentation in studies directly comparing phototherapy modalities. The overall quality of the studies was moderate to poor and high heterogeneity between studies was found. We found limited evidence that phototherapy improves the outcome of melanocyte transplantation in vitiligo. There is insufficient evidence to recommend a specific type or regimen of phototherapy. More studies should be performed investigating the additional benefit of different phototherapies and the preferred moment of phototherapy.

Interrater and intrarater agreement of confocal microscopy imaging in diagnosing and subtyping basal cell carcinoma

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) imaging can be used to diagnose and subtype basal cell carcinoma (BCC) but relies on individual morphologic pattern recognition that might vary among users.

Secukinumab treatment in new-onset psoriasis: aiming to understand the potential for disease modification - rationale and design of the randomized, multicenter STEPIn study

To date, biological treatments have been assessed in subjects with a long‐term history of psoriasis and previous failures to systemic and topical therapies. In rheumatoid arthritis and other immune‐mediated inflammatory diseases, early intensive systemic treatment prolongs treatment‐free remission. We hypothesize that, by treating patients with psoriasis early with an effective systemic therapy, we may be able to alter the clinical outcome and the natural course of the disease. The STEPIn study (NCT03020199) investigates early intervention with secukinumab versus narrow‐band ultraviolet B (nb‐UVB) phototherapy in subjects with new‐onset psoriasis.