Necrolytic migratory erythema associated with glucagonoma treated successfully with cyclosporine

Abstract

Glucagonoma syndrome is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by elevated serum levels of glucagon, the presence of glucagonoma, and dermatological clinical findings such as necrolytic migratory erythema (NME) (John & Schwartz, 2016; Luber, Ackerman, Culpepper, Buschmann, & Koep, 2016). The main challenge associated with the diagnosis of glucagonoma syndrome is that at diagnosis, metastasis has already occurred in more than 50% of cases. However, this tumor tends to exhibit slow growth; median survival is 3–7 years and patients have survived for up to 24 years (John & Schwartz, 2016; Mendoza-Guil, Hern andez-Jurado, Burkhardt, Linares, & Naranjo, 2005). Furthermore, NME significantly affects patients’ quality of life and is characteristically resistant to treatment (Thomaidou, Nahmias, Gilead, Zlotogorski, & Ramot, 2016). In this sense, additional knowledge regarding effective drugs for treating persistent NME is needed.