Editors: Chikako Nishigori, Kaoru Sugasawa

2019

Xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) is an autosomal recessive hereditary photosensitive disease, in which patients display extreme hypersensitivity to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) because of the deficiency in the ability to repair the UVR-induced DNA lesions. Although the existence of the disease had been known since the first case report on XP by a dermatologist, Kaposi, in 1883, the cause of XP was at length discovered in 1968, 85 years after the first case report.