Background

The development of skin rashes is the most common adverse event observed in cancer patients treated with epidermal growth factor receptor-tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as erlotinib. However, the pharmacological evidence has not been fully revealed.

Results

Erlotinib distribution in the rashes was more heterogeneous than that in the normal skin, and the rashes contained statistically higher concentrations of erlotinib than adjacent normal skin in the superficial skin layer (229±192 vs. 120±103 ions/mm 2; P= 0.009 in paired t-test). LC-MS/MS confirmed that the concentration of erlotinib in the skin rashes was higher than that in normal skin in the superficial skin layer (1946±1258 vs. 1174±662 ng/cm 3; P= 0.028 in paired t-test). The results of MALDI-MSI and LC-MS/MS were well correlated (coefficient of correlation 0.879, P< 0.0001).

Conclusions

Focal distribution of erlotinib in the skin tissue was visualized using non-labeled MALDI-MSI. Erlotinib concentration in the superficial layer of the skin rashes was higher than that in the adjacent normal skin.

Methods

We examined patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who developed skin rashes after treatment with erlotinib and gemcitabine. We biopsied both the rash and adjacent normal skin tissues, and visualized and compared the distribution of erlotinib within the skin using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI). The tissue concentration of erlotinib was also measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) with laser microdissection.