Dermatologists yesterday urged people who have attempted in vain to treat a common fungal infection of the nails known as onychomycosis or tinea unguium to immediately seek medical advice, as the condition could instead be subungual squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the most common nailbed malignancy that could lead to digit amputations.
Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Dermatology Department director Liu Han-nan (劉漢南) and physician Chu Szu-ying (朱思穎) issued the advice at a press conference in Taipei yesterday, after a 61-year-old man who mistook the debris buildup under the nail of the middle finger of his right hand as a sign of tinea unguium was later diagnosed with subungual SCC.
“Before the man turned to medical assistance, he had deformation and abnormal debris buildup under the nail of his right middle finger for several months. He had tried to trim the thickened nail himself, until the outgrowths became painful and began producing pus,” Chu said.
Chu said the hospital diagnosed the man with tinea unguium and treated his condition with antibiotics and oral antifungal medicines, but started looking for other explanations after treatment eased the pain, but not the buildup.
“We then used a fungal culture to determine which type of fungi infected the man’s nail and found Candida albicans, which accounts for less than 5 percent of tinea unguium cases,” Chu said.
To the hospital’s astonishment, a nail biopsy showed that the man’s condition was caused by subungual SCC, which has happened to just about 200 patients worldwide since 1850, Chu said.
Chu said men between the ages of 50 and 70 who drank arsenic-contaminated water, had sustained finger injuries, had been exposed to gamma radiation or were infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16, 18 or 5, were most susceptible to the cancer.
“While tinea unguium and subungual SCC could cause nail thickening, there are three major differences between the two diseases,” Chu said.
The fungal infection mostly affects toenails, while the latter is usually found beneath fingernails; the cancer tends to infect only one finger or toe, while the fungus tends to invade more than one; and the fungus almost never causes discomfort, but the cancer can be accompanied by pain and pus, Chu said.
Liu said that while subungual SCC is rare, it is the most common malignancy in nails and could lead to amputations if it spreads to the bone.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS