Interstitial granulomatous dermatitis and concurrent immunotherapy associated encephalitis with nivolumab and ipilimumab.

Immune-related adverse events (irAEs) are common in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic melanoma and other advanced malignancies. Cutaneous, gastrointestinal, and endocrine (thyroid) irAEs are most prevalent, whereas neurologic irAEs are rare. We present a 73-year-old man with dementia and metastatic melanoma who developed immunotherapy-associated encephalitis and subsequently, interstitial granulomatous dermatitis with nivolumab/ipilimumab. High-dose corticosteroids successfully treated both conditions, though he never regained his baseline mental status. We review the literature on interstitial granulomatous dermatitis and encephalitis with immunotherapy.

Aberrant DNA Methylation Predicts Melanoma-Specific Survival in Patients with Acral Melanoma.

Acral melanoma (AM) is a rare, aggressive type of cutaneous melanoma (CM) with a distinct genetic profile. We aimed to identify a methylome signature distinguishing primary acral lentiginous melanoma (PALM) from primary non-lentiginous AM (NALM), metastatic ALM (MALM), primary non-acral CM (PCM), and acral nevus (AN). A total of 22 PALM, nine NALM, 10 MALM, nine PCM, and three AN were subjected to genome-wide methylation analysis using the Illumina Infinium Methylation EPIC array interrogating 866,562 CpG sites. A prominent finding was that the methylation profiles of PALM and NALM were distinct. Four of the genes most differentially methylated between PALM and NALM or MALM were HHEX, DIPK2A, NELFB, and TEF. However, when primary AMs (PALM + NALM) were compared with MALM, IFITM1 and SIK3 were the most differentially methylated, highlighting their pivotal role in the metastatic potential of AMs. Patients with NALM had significantly worse disease-specific survival (DSS) than patients with PALM. Aberrant methylation was significantly associated with aggressive clinicopathologic parameters and worse DSS. Our study emphasizes the importance of distinguishing the two epigenetically distinct subtypes of AM. We also identified novel epigenetic prognostic biomarkers that may serve to risk-stratify patients with AM and may be leveraged for the development of targeted therapies.