Exacerbation, then Clearance, of Mutation-Proven Darier's Disease of the Skin after Radiotherapy for Bronchial Carcinoma: A Case of Radiation-Induced Epidermal Differentiation?

Abstract Mac Manus, M. P., Cavalleri, G., Ball, D. L., Beasley, M., Rotstein, H. and McKay, M. J. Exacerbation, then Clearance, of Mutation-Proven Darier's Diseaseof the Skin after Radiotherapy for Bronchial Carcinoma: A Case of Radiation-Induced Epidermal Differentiation? Radiat. Res. 156, 724–730 (2001). We investigated a radiotherapy-induced flare and subsequentclearance of skin lesions of a patient with the rare, dominantly inherited genodermatosis, Darier's disease(DD). The DD gene, ATP2A2, was recently isolated and shown to be a cation pump responsible for regulating intracellular calcium homeostasis. A severe exacerbation of Darier's skin lesions developed within the radiation field when 40 Gy of palliative thoracic external-beam radiation therapy and concurrent chemotherapy (cisplatin and hydroxyurea) were delivered for non-small cell lung cancer. The DD lesions subsequentlycompletely cleared from irradiated skin, as they did when a subsequentcourse of radiation alone was given for a loco-reg...