More on Skin Cancer after the Extravasation of Doxorubicin

To the Editor: On reading in the report of skin cancer occurring in a patient 10 years after the extravasation of doxorubicin (March 16 issue) 1 that “repeated contact with polycyclic carbohydrates” is a risk factor for cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma, I became alarmed. Did Lauvin et al. intend in their use of the term “polycyclic carbohydrates” to include the common polysaccharides cellulose, starch, and pectin, or did they mean to use the term “cyclic, or aromatic, hydrocarbons”? 2 After consulting a chemical dictionary, I decided this particular usage of the term “polycyclic carbohydrates” constituted neither a new nor an old definition, but . . .