Posts Tagged ‘vismodegib’
LOWER LID CARCINOMA
HISTORY This 84 year old man was initially seen with a large left facial lesion. Biopsy diagnosed basal cell carcinoma in 3 locations of biopsy. The patient was reluctant to undergo a surgical excision and reconstruction. Vismodegib (Erivedge) was used as primary treatment. Patient completed a 4 month course of 150mg daily vismodegib dose. He…
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MEDIAL CANTHUS BASAL CELL CARCINOMA FOLLOW UP
HISTORY 91 year old man presented with a recurrent right medial canthus BCC that was previously treated with 45 days of radiation (SRT at Hoag Hospital). Biopsy showed infiltrative sclerosing basal cell carcinoma with focal perineural invasion. MRI in December of 2016 showed the mass was fixed on the lamina papyracea adjacent to the medial…
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Vismodegib – A Breakthrough in Basal Cell Carcinoma Treatment
Vismodegib, a Hedgehog Pathway Inhibitor, has been recently shown to be highly effective for advanced basal cell carcinoma in Phase II clinical studies. Discovery of the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway is enlightening in how three unrelated basic science research paths can meet at crossroads of cancer treatment breakthrough. First, there were sheep in Idaho in 1957…
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Smoothened and Patched and Sonic Hedgehogs – From Cyclopic Sheep to Targeted Basal Cell Carcinoma Treatment
What does Frizzled, Frazzled, Dishevelled, and Smoothened have to do with the Sonic Hedgehog? These are some of the humorously named genes in Drosophila fruit flies that also happened to be expressed in humans. Besides adding character to the genes, these names occasionally reflect the traits they describe. Hedgehog (Hh) gene is part of the…
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