[Skip to Navigation]
Comment & Response
January 2018

Hair Repigmentation With Anti–PD-1 and Anti–PD-L1 Immunotherapy: A Novel Hypothesis—Reply

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Dermatology, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
JAMA Dermatol. 2018;154(1):113-114. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.4419

In Reply We read with interest the letter by Manson et al. They describe another case of hair repigmentation (HR) in a male patient with concomitant advanced colorectal cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma treated with nivolumab and showing a good response. Interestingly, this new case seems to support the association between a good response and HR.

Fourteen of the 15 patients with HR in our report were male.1 Although Manson et al have proposed a very interesting hypothesis to explain this male predominance, we consider that it is probably due to sampling bias. Lung cancer is considerably more common in male than in female patients; therefore, of the 52 patients were recruited in our ongoing study, only 5 (<10%) were female. The repigmentation rate was 14 (30%) of 47 in men and 1 (20%) of 5 in women (P = .64). Thus, we presume that there are no differences between sexes.1

Add or change institution
×