Cucumber anaphylaxis in a latex-sensitized patient.

We report the case of a 76-year-old woman who experienced dizziness, vomiting, dyspnea, thoracic erythema, and vaginal itching within 5 minutes of eating cucumber. She had been diagnosed 3 months earlier with papaya urticaria and latex sensitization. The results of skin prick tests were positive for cucumber, watermelon, papaya, and latex and negative for melon and profilin extracts. ImmunoCAP for latex-specific serum immunoglobulin (Ig) E was positive. Cucumber-specific serum IgE was negative. Immunoblot analysis using patient serum revealed a 30- to 32-kDa protein band in the cucumber (peel) and papaya extracts. Immunoblot inhibition with latex extract demonstrated inhibition of the band in both extracts. Immunoblot inhibition with cucumber-papaya and papaya-cucumber revealed inhibition of the same band in the cucumber and papaya extracts, respectively. We present a case of IgE-mediated allergy to cucumber and papaya. Our results strongly suggest that the allergen(s) implicated are associated with latex sensitization. To our knowledge, this is the first report of cucumber-latex and cucumber-papaya cross-reactivity.