title: Bowen's disease with high telomerase activity.
abstract: We describe an 81-year-old Japanese woman who had a palm-sized, erythematous plaque with a nodular lesion on the lateral abdomen. The biopsy specimens taken from the erythematous plaque and reddish nodule show that bowenoid changes were present in the epidermis and epidermis to dermis, respectively. A sentinel lymph node biopsy (SNB) was performed with blue dye and radioisotope in her right groin region and two lymph nodes were found to be occupied by many atypical cells. The erythematous plaque with nodular lesion was completely removed with a 3-cm margin under general anesthesia, and complete regional lymph node dissection was also performed. In addition, high telomerase activity was seen in the erythema plaque while using a telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay. In conclusion, some instances of Bowen's disease might have high telomerase activity in the atypical cells and can progress to Bowen's carcinoma. The SNB was regarded as a useful method to detect early lymph node metastases in this case.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Sachiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Noro
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mitsuishi
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Takehiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: Mayuka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakatake
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kawana
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001913:Bowen's Disease / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000556:secondary; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000556:secondary; D018450:Disease Progression; D004586:Electrophoresis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019098:Telomerase