Photo Recall Phenomenon: An Adverse Reaction to Taxanes

Abstract

Taxanes are a new group of chemotherapeutic agents, which share some pharmacological characteristics with methotrexate. Methotrexate has previously been reported to cause a photo recall phenomenon which develops 3-5 days after UV radiation, suggesting that taxanes can induce a similar reaction. This should be added to the list of cutaneous side-effects of this class of chemotherapeutic agents. We report a case of photo recall phenomenon in a 55-year-old Chinese woman with metastatic breast cancer who was undergoing chemotherapy with taxanes.