Successful Treatment of Cutaneous Botryomycosis with a Combination of Minocycline and Topical Heat Therapy

Cutaneous botryomycosis is a chronic focal infection characterized by a granulomatous inflammatory response to bacterial pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus. Treatment requires antibiotic therapy and may also require surgical debridement. We employed topical heat therapy and oral minocycline. The lesions became flattened and pigmented after 1 month. We consider that this simple treatment can be an effective and harmless complementary therapy for cutaneous botryomycosis

Phaeohyphomycosis Caused by Phaeoacremonium rubrigenum in an Immunosuppressive Patient: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Phaeohyphomycosis (PHM) is a rare, deep fungal infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissues caused by dematiaceous fungi. In this report, we describe a case of PHM caused by Phaeoacremonium rubrigenum, which is generally known to infect woody plants. We detected the gray-blackish villi by biopsy culture material, and slide culture revealed the conidia arising from slightly tapering phialides. Furthermore, we differentiated these fungi as P. rubrigenum by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) algorithm. We performed surgical debridement of disseminated nodules and administered oral itraconazole for a duration of 4 weeks. One year after stopping itraconazole, there was no sign of relapsing subcutaneous nodules. To our knowledge, this is the third case report of PHM developing from skin infection by P. rubrigenum in human

Multiple Low-Grade Fibromyxoid Sarcoma on the Upper Arms with Atypical Histological Presentation

Low-grade fibromyxoid sarcoma (LGFMS) is a rare variant of spindle cell tumor that is composed of collagen-rich and myxoid parts. We describe the case of a 61-year-old Japanese patient with multiple, recurrent LGFMS on the upper arms with atypical histological presentation. In the present case, we resected the tumor several times with a minimal surgical margin, as in Moh's microsurgery. However, this can frequently lead to local recurrence of the tumor. Our case suggested that, regarding mesenchymal tumors with potential of malignancy in the skin, an initial wide excision is indispensable for complete remission of the tumor, even for low-grade malignancy such as LGFMS

Successful control of recurrent angiosarcoma in the external auditory canal with CyberKnife radiosurgery and bisphosphonate risedronate sodium

Angiosarcoma (AS) is a highly aggressive vascular tumor that spreads widely throughout the skin. Since AS tends to recur locally and metastasize early, an additional intensive therapy is necessary. In this report, we describe an 83-year-old man with recurrent AS that metastasized to the right external auditory meatus, who achieved complete remission with CyberKnife and weekly administration of bisphosphonate risedronate sodium. Results of the present study might suggest the novel possibility of using CyberKnife with weekly administration of bisphosphonate risedronate sodium for the treatment of inoperable metastatic AS

Profiles of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in a Case of Trichilemmal Carcinoma with Spontaneous Regression

We describe the case of a 69-year-old Japanese patient with spontaneous regression of trichilemmal carcinoma. We investigated the immunohistochemical profiles of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, focusing on cytotoxic granules, granulysin-bearing cells and immunosuppressive cells, such as regulatory T cells and tumor-associated macrophages. Our present study describes some of the possible mechanisms of the self-regression of cutaneous malignant tumors and potential therapies for trichilemmal carcinoma by modifying the tumor microenvironment

Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Developing from Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa: A Case Report and an Immunohistochemical Study

We describe a 49-year-old Japanese woman with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) developing from recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). Interestingly, immunohistochemical staining revealed dense infiltration of CD163+ M2 macrophages and numerous Foxp3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) around the tumor. Since the contribution of immunosuppressive factors (e.g. TGFβ) to the carcinogenesis of SCC from RDEB was recently reported, our present findings suggest one of the possible contributions of immunosuppressive cells, such as CD163+ M2 macrophages and Tregs, to the carcinogenesis of SCC from RDEB