We retrospectively analyzed the clinical features of 81 patients (M:F=40:41, with an average age of 60 years) with drug eruptions induced by anti-cancer drugs over a six-year period (April 2003 through March 2009). The major causative drugs were: 1. antimetabolites (40 patients), including fluorouracil and tegafur gimeracil oteracil potassium, gemcitabine and others; 2 taxianes (18 patients), including docetaxel and paclitaxel; 3 signal transduction inhibitors (17 patients), including gefitinib, imatinib, erlotinib and sorafenib. Erythema and maculopapular rash were the most common types of eruption, followed by acne, palmoplantar keratoderma, and hand-foot syndrome. The time lag from the administration of anti-cancer drugs to the appearance of eruptions was an average of 45 days. Five patients were treated with corticosteroids, but many of the other patients were able to continue the therapies without a reappearance of eruptions.
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