SCAR 2025: Stronger Together

Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR), including both Stevens–Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis (SJS/TEN) and drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS), are immunologically-mediated, life-threatening, and typically drug-induced diseases affecting adults and children that result in significant morbidity and mortality. Survivors of SCAR are often left with long term-disabilities that can affect their quality of life and a lifelong fear of taking any new, even if unrelated, drugs. SCAR reactions are often associated with drugs used to treat diseases of public health importance globally such as tuberculosis and leprosy. Even though SCAR is rare, it is often severe and requires effective care across different populations globally, including highly coordinated teams of multiple disciplines that are comprised of dermatologists, critical care specialists, ophthalmologists, allergists and immunologists, pharmacologists, infectious diseases, and mental health specialists. For the first time, and to further the success of our DRESS 2022 meeting and previously NIH-funded SJS/TEN meetings in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023, we are proposing to hold “SCAR 2026: Stronger together,” a joint meeting planned for 2026. SCAR 2026 will be in-person to catalyze progress in improving prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of SCAR. The scheduled 2.5-day meeting will include plenary and patient and community-focused sessions on the first day, followed by keynote and scientific breakout sessions the subsequent two days. Topics covered will be both overlapping and distinct to individual SCAR. Community engagement will once again be a key theme of the meeting. “SCAR 2026” will showcase new science from both diseases in addition to understanding and translating knowledge within and between diseases. The meeting will again provide a rich training environment of networking and interactions for early investigators. We will focus on understanding SCAR mechanism (both shared and separate) through research and continue our community and patient-focused sessions to bring the patient voice into all of these important discussions.