Successful Treatment of Painful Cutaneous Vasculopathy With Rivaroxaban in a Patient With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Novel oral anticoagulant (NOAC) medications have revolutionized hematology and cardiology. Recently, NOACs have demonstrated additional promise in dermatology. Specifically, rivaroxaban, a direct factor Xa inhibitor NOAC, has been shown to be successful in the treatment of livedoid vasculopathy. Herein, we describe a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus who presented with painful cutaneous vasculopathy, demonstrated on biopsy with occlusive microvascular fibrin thrombi without evidence of concurrent vasculitis. Interestingly, imaging and laboratory studies did not show evidence of hypercoagulability, arterial disease, or embolic disease. The patient’s vasculopathy and pain progressed despite antiplatelet therapy, often considered first-line in cases of microvascular occlusive disease. However, with rivaroxaban therapy, the patient experienced complete regression of her painful lesions, thereby supporting a further role for NOACs in cutaneous vasculopathy treatment. J Drugs Dermatol. 2020;19(5) doi:10.36849/JDD.2020.4684.

Tumor Staging and Grading: A Primer.

Cancer staging and grading are used to predict the clinical behavior of malignancies, establish appropriate therapies, and facilitate exchange of precise information between clinicians. The internationally accepted criterion for cancer staging, the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) system, includes: (1) tumor size and local growth (T), (2) extent of lymph node metastases (N), and (3) occurrence of distant metastases (M). Clinical stage is established before initiation of therapy and is determined by physical examination, laboratory findings, and imaging studies. Pathologic stage is determined following surgical exploration of disease and histologic examination of tissue. The TNM classification system has evolved over 70 years to accommodate increasing knowledge about cancer biology. Molecular technologies such as genomic and proteomic profiling of tumors could eventually be incorporated into the TNM staging system. This chapter describes the current TNM system using breast, lung, ovarian, and prostate cancer examples.