Management of Cutaneous Adverse Events in Oncodermatology, With Drew Kuraitis, MD, PhD

A session was presented during the 2026 Maui Derm Hawaii conference, titled ‘Oncodermatology in 2026,’ during which a discussion was held on strategies for managing the cutaneous adverse events linked with the expanding array of therapeutic agents in oncology.1,2

This session was followed with an interview between the HCPLive editorial team and Drew Kuraitis, MD, PhD, a board-certified dermatologist and staff member at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. Kuraitis, who specializes in oncodermatology, spoke about the strategies highlighted in his talk in this Q&A interview:

HCPLive: We wanted to ask you a bit about your session that you presented titled ‘Oncdermatology in 2026.’ Firstly, why did you feel this was an important talk to give, particularly in the context of 2026?

Kuraitis: Oncodermatology is the study of the management of any cutaneous adverse event related to cancer treatment, such as hair, skin, and nails. Most commonly, we're dealing with rashes after patients start chemotherapy or immunotherapy. The reason why it's so prevalent right now is that the rate of cancer is going up. You know, roughly up to half a million patients per year are going to start systemic cancer treatment.

Some of the newer treatments actually unmask or bring to the forefront chronic rashes such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, or bullous pemphigoid. 20 years ago, this wasn't the case, but now we're seeing a lot of oncology or cancer patients who now have to live with psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, or bullous pemphigoid. Now, dermatologists are very intimately involved in care for these cancer patients.

HCPLive: This sounds like a timely session. What would you say were some of the biggest takeaways from your session on oncodermatology that you feel would be most important for clinicians to walk away with?

Kuraitis: The biggest takeaway, really, is knowing the patient and knowing the history. So a lot of the rashes that are coming in, if they're cancer-related atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, or bullous pemphigoid, we generally treat them the same way. But you have to have in the back of your head that the patient has a history of cancer. That generally guides us towards avoiding something that completely lowers or depletes the immune system, because we don't want to tank the immune system if you have a cancer history.

So really, it's kind of about knowing the patient, knowing the nuances of cancer, cancer treatment, or cancer history. But it's also knowing that you're going to start seeing these patients more and more. So previously, the use of some of these medications that cause rashes that are going to be long-term with patients… A lot of community hospitals and community oncologists are using these medications.

Previously, these patients may have been funneled to a dermatology clinic at a cancer center or at a hospital. That's not the case anymore. These patients are in everybody's clinic at this point, and we need to become familiar with them. It's not something that any provider should be afraid of.

HCPLive: Are there any other unique advancements in recent years that you feel are important to highlight?

Kuraitis: I wouldn't say that we have unique advancements. We're constantly trying to figure out the best way to manage these patients and safely treat them, while respecting that they have a history of cancer. That being said, we don't have really unique treatments that we use. We still treat the patients as if they had the same diagnosis, but it just wasn't cancer-related. There are just a few more nuances involved in having patients who have this history.

HCPLive: Looking ahead right now in the dermatology space, are there any new developments in the dermatology space to which you are looking forward?

Kuraitis: Yes. In the last few years, we've had quite a number of studies come out that show that patients who are developing rashes on cancer treatment, this is actually a good prognostic sign; patients do well. We kind of have this momentum we're trying to ride and go with where we want to preserve these cancer treatments for patients. If someone is doing well on cancer therapy, we don't want them to stop because of a rash.

We want to be able to jump in and manage the rash so they can stay on life-saving treatment. As you know, in dermatology, we're often ‘splitters’ more than ‘lumpers,’ I feel, and I think when we are being splitters more than lumpers, we're constantly refining these diagnoses. We are starting to delineate and better define some of these cancer-related diagnoses that we see, and probably identify the best treatment for these patients. But the ultimate story is we want to keep patients on their cancer treatment. We can handle these rashes. We can take care of the skin side effects so that patients don't have to stop cancer treatment.

HCPLive: Are there any other notable points that you wanted to highlight from your talk?

Kuraitis: The whole premise of my talk was that these rashes are out there. We should never be afraid of these rashes. We can manage them. These rashes are things that we see on a daily basis in our clinic. It's just in the context of having been treated or actively being treated for cancer with immune checkpoint inhibitors or immunotherapy, and you just have to keep that in mind when you're deciding on the best way to approach and treat these patients.

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for clarity.

References

1. Kuraitis D. Oncodermatology in 2026. Presented at: Maui Derm Hawaii 2026; January 25-29, 2026; Maui, Hawaii.

2. Bang AS, Anadkat MJ, Lacouture ME. Oncodermatology: Advancing the Science and Care of Cancer Patients and Survivors. Am J Clin Dermatol. 2022 Jul;23(4):587-589. doi: 10.1007/s40257-022-00705-z. Epub 2022 Jul 5. PMID: 35788536; PMCID: PMC10569770.