CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gynecological Oncology
This article is part of the Research TopicGynecological Cancer Prevention in Women with Inherited Genetic RiskView all 3 articles
A Novel Effect of Bevacizumab in Reducing Characteristic Pigmentation in Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review
Provisionally accepted- The First Clinical Medical College of Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China, Lanzhou, China
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Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome (PJS) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by mucocutaneous pigmentation (e.g., perioral melanotic macules) and gastrointestinal hamartomatous polyps, with heightened cancer susceptibility.This report describes a 34-year-old Han Chinese ethnicity woman with familial Peutz-Jeghers syndrome (PJS) and stage IIA HPV-independent gastric-type endocervical adenocarcinoma following bevacizumab therapy. Initial concurrent chemoradiation (Paclitaxel with either nedaplatin or cisplatin with volumetric modulated arc therapy) achieved partial response, while subsequent maintenance therapy combining bevacizumab with chemotherapy induced complete radiographic remission. Crucially, progressive fading of pathognomonic perioral melanotic macules demonstrated temporal correlation with bevacizumab administration, with sustained remission at 1-year follow-up. These findings challenge the conventional paradigm of PJS pigmentation as a static feature by demonstrating that VEGF-mediated angiogenesis concurrently drives carcinogenesis and melanin deposition. The case highlights three key implications: ①validation of bevacizumab's dual therapeutic potential against PJS-associated malignancies and cutaneous manifestations; ② proposal of mucocutaneous pigmentation as a dynamic biomarker for treatment response monitoring; ③urgent need for prospective clinical trials evaluating VEGF inhibition in PJS through longitudinal surveillance of oncologic control and pigment dynamics.
Keywords: Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome, Gastric-type endocervical adenocarcinoma, Labial melanotic macules, bevacizumab, chemoradiation
Received: 28 Aug 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Liu, Wang, Qu, Zhang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Lina Wang
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