Skin changes in internal malignancy.
BACKGROUND
Internal malignancies are accompanied by various skin changes which may be specific infiltrates or non-specific changes. This study is aimed at determining the frequency of such changes in malignant disease treatment center attendees in India.


METHODS
A study of 300 confirmed cases of internal malignancy at a malignant disease treatment center was undertaken to evaluate these skin changes. Specific infiltrates were confirmed by histopathology. Statistical methods were employed to calculate significance in non-specific lesions by comparing with 300 controls not suffering from internal malignancy.


RESULTS
Skin changes were present in 82 (27.3%). Cutaneous metastases were found in 19 (6.3%); non-contiguous in 5 (1.6%); contiguous in 14 (4.3%). Non-specific skin lesions numbered 74 (11.6%) in 52 patients. Statistically significant non-specific skin changes were acquired ichthyosis, herpes zoster and generalized pruritus.


CONCLUSIONS
Metastases usually occurred late in internal malignancy (17, 5.6%) except in a case each of histiocytic lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (2, 0.7%) where the lesions preceded malignancy by 3 months and 1 month respectively. Contiguous nodules were a marker of relapse after surgery in 3 (1%).
Rajagopal
Ravi
R
Dept of Dermatology, 5 Air Force Hospital, C/o 99 APO, India. ravi_rajagopal@rediffmail.com
Arora
P N
PN
Ramasastry
C V
CV
Kar
P K
PK