New Skin Toxicities for New Anticancer Therapies

Targeted cancer therapies have revolutionised the therapeutic management of many neoplasms, modifying patients'' prognosis and overall survival. These drugs block the cancer''s growth and spread by interfering with specific molecules which play a crucial role in the proliferation, differentiation and survival of cancer cells. Targeted therapies act selectively on specific molecular targets related to cancers, whereas most of the conventional chemotherapies act on all rapidly dividing normal and neoplastic cells. Moreover, targeted therapies are often cytostatic and non-cytotoxic as standard chemotherapies. Taken together, these aspects appear important in reducing systemic toxicity and ensuring an improved safety profile. The inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular growth factor (VEGF) and BRAF represents major achievements in research and development of solid tumour''s epithelial therapy. This class of biologics is currently widely used in the treatment of metastatic and unresponsive neoplasms of the colon, pancreas, lung, (NSCLC), breast, head and neck and melanoma. This book aims to emphasize skin toxicity associated with EGFR-, VEGF- and BRAF- inhibitors, focusing particularly on their clinical presentation, histopathological findings, and specific therapeutic options.