Westmead Dermatology
Striving towards disease-free skin
This year, the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference (ANZSMS26) was held in Adelaide, South Australia from, Sunday 16 to Thursday 20 July 2017. ANZSMS26 is the premier conference for mass spectrometry in the Australia & New Zealand region with an aim to provide a forum for the presentation of research in …
Congratualations to Dr Shaun Chou, with the paper “PD-1 inhibitor associated lichenoid inflammation with incidental suprabasilar acantholysis or vesiculation – report of four cases” accepted in Journal of Cutaneous Pathology last week. This is a paper about four rare cases of atypical lichenoid reactions with histological blistering, that histologically mimicked paraneoplastic pemphigus. All of the …
Various cutaneous side-effects have been reported with anti-melanoma systemic therapies. BRAF inhibitors, MEK inhibitors, anti-PD1 and anti-CTLA4 molecules have changed the prognosis of patients with metastatic melanoma, improving their chances of survival. Some side effects appear in these patients, including changes in nevi (moles). We have reviewed the changes in our patients on dabrafenib, vermurafenib …
Written by Dr Cathy Zhao Also known as naevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome (NBSCCS), Gorlin syndrome is an autosomal dominant genetic syndrome with increased risk of developing basal cell carcinomas (BCC). In Australia, the estimated prevalence of Gorlin syndrome is 1:164000 as per a local study done in 1994. The PTCH1 gene, with produces a …
Written by Dr Cathy Zhao Basal cell carcinomas (BCCs) are common skin cancers that are usually localised and treated with standard surgical excision or Mohs micrographic surgery, electrodessication and curettage, imiquimod, or 5-fluorouracil. Their growth is driven by mutations that lead to inappropriate Hedgehog signalling pathway. Very rarely, BCCs can become locally destructive and metastasise, …
Dr Shelley Ji Eun Hwang, a former dermatology research fellow at Westmead Hospital (current accredited dermatology registrar at the Skin and Cancer Foundation, Darlinghurst) has been awarded the Eileen Collins Memorial Prize by the Australasian College of Dermatologist (ACD) in the 50th Annual Scientific Meeting for delivering the best paper presentation by a NSW registrar. …
Westmead Oncodermatology is the result of the collaboration of the Department of Dermatology (DOD) at Westmead Hospital and the Skin & Cancer Foundation Australia (SCFA) at Westmead. Oncodermatology is a merge of the Oncology and Dermatology disciplines and works to improve management and research into cancers of the skin. The best source of information available …
Our new reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM), VivaScope® 1500 have arrived at the Department of Dermatology, Westmead Hospital this week. We are proud to be one of the few institutions in Sydney to have a RCM. The term confocal in RCM refers to the CONjugate relationship between the FOCAL planes in which the tissue sample and …
Written by Dr Charlotte Thomas Research conducted by our team at the Skin & Cancer Foundation Australia and published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology suggests that Australian adults continue to experience sunburn. In our study, with over 650 participants, 57% had been sunburned within the previous year alone. We …
A/Prof Pablo Fernandez-Peñas participated in the Expert Forum Symposium “Critical Evaluation of Novel Therapies in Melanoma” ( in the last Congress of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology EADV) in Vienna (September 2016). Pablo reviewed the role of BRAF and MEK inhibitors in the era of the immunotherapies. Although most authors support the use …
