Cutaneous lichenoid drug eruptions: A Narrative Review evaluating demographics, clinical features, and culprit medications.

Cutaneous lichenoid drug eruptions (LDE) are adverse drug reactions (ADR) characterized by symmetric, erythematous, violaceous papules reminiscent but rarely fully characteristic of lichen planus (LP). We aimed to analyze the literature describing cases of LDE within the last 20 years to provide additional insight into culprit drugs, typical latency to onset of the eruption, the spectrum of clinical presentations, severity, and management. A literature search was conducted in MEDLINE between January 2000 and January 27, 2021. The keywords "lichenoid drug rash and lichenoid drug eruption " were used. Cases were included if LDE diagnosis was made and culprit drugs were identified. A total of 323 cases with LDE were identified from 163 published case reports and studies. The mean patient age was 58.5 years (1 month to 92 years), and 135 patients (41.8%) were female. Checkpoint inhibitors (CKI) were the most frequently reported culprit drugs (138 cases; 42.7%), followed by tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) (39 cases; 12.1%) and anti-TNF-α-monoclonal antibodies (13 cases; 4.0%). The latency between initiation of the drug and manifestation was 15.7 weeks (range: 0.1 week - 298 weeks). After discontinuing the culprit drug, the median time to resolution was 14.2 weeks (range: 0.71 weeks - 416 weeks). One hundred thirty-five patients (41.8%) were treated with topical, and 54 patients (16.7%) with systemic glucocorticoids. Overall, we conclude that, albeit rare, LDE is challenging to diagnose ADR induced by mostly CKI, TKI, and biologics. Treatment modalities resemble that of lichen planus, and the culprit drugs had to be discontinued in only 26%, which is low compared to other types of adverse drug reactions. This is probably due to the low risk of aggravation (toxic epidermal necrolysis, for example) if the drug is continued and the benefit/risk ratio favoring the drug, as is often the case in cancer therapy.