Grover Disease Associated With Chemotherapy: Review of Potential Pathophysiology, Current Treatments, and Future Directions.

INTRODUCTION

Transient acantholytic dermatosis has been frequently reported in patients with malignancies. While paraneoplastic cases have rarely been reported, most eruptions occur in the setting of chemotherapeutic agents. Management is based on limited data and primarily with topical steroids and topical emollients. A subset of patients exhibits recalcitrant disease and require alternate therapeutic approachesMethods: This systematic review consisted of identifying records in PubMed using the medical subject headings (MeSH) terms “chemotherapy” AND “Grover”, “chemotherapy” AND “Grover’s”, “cancer” AND “Grover”, “cancer” AND “Grover’s”, “malignancy” AND “Grover”, “malignancy” AND “Grover’s”, as well as a free text search for “Grover” OR “Grover’s” OR “Grover disease” OR “Grovers disease” OR “Grover’s disease” OR “transient acantholytic dermatosis” OR “transient acantholytic” to identify case reports, case series, systematic reviews, review articles, meta-analyses, clinical trials, brief commentaries, and original articles. The titles and abstracts of all results were reviewed. Full texts of relevant results were then read in their entirety and applicability was determined.

RESULTS

Overall, Grover disease has rarely been reported in the setting of malignancy. When it occurs, it is generally in the setting of chemotherapy use. Chemotherapy-associated Grover disease is reported most frequently in association with cytotoxic chemotherapies, followed by small molecule inhibitors. The first line treatment for this complication is the use of topical agents. When these provide inadequate relief, alternate therapies have been rarely reported, with novel treatments proposed based on the type of chemotherapy agent and its mechanism of action.

CONCLUSIONS

Chemotherapy-associated Grover disease is an uncommon complication of cancer treatment. While most cases of chemotherapy-associated Grover disease can be treated with topical steroids and topical emollients, certain cases require a more specialized approach. This could include adjuvant adjuvant therapies, or novel treatments that are directly related to the mechanism of action of the chemotherapy involved. J Drugs Dermatol. 2020;19(11):1056-1064. doi:10.36849/JDD.2020.5648.