Alopecia: a common paraneoplastic manifestation of cholangiocarcinoma in humans and animals.
The coincidence of alopecia and a tumour may indicate the paraneoplastic nature of alopecia. Paraneoplastic alopecia is not uncommon in animals, feline paraneoplastic alopecia being the best example known. We present a case of alopecia coinciding with the presentation of a cholangiocarcinoma in a woman. Following surgical resection of the tumour, alopecia resolved spontaneously and it reappeared on local recurrence, 2 years later. As far as pathogenesis is concerned, the coincidence of alopecia and cholangiocarcinoma may indicate the paraneoplastic nature of alopecia as a rare complication of this rare tumour in humans. This also implies that common interspecies mechanism(s) must exist as far as this paraneoplastic complication is concerned.
Second Teaching Department of Surgery, Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece.
Efstathios
E
Antoniou
Panorea
P
Paraskeva
Anastasios
A
Smyrnis
Kostas
K
Konstantopoulos
D000505:Alopecia / Q000209:etiology*; D000818:Animals; D001650:Bile Duct Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D001653:Bile Ducts, Intrahepatic; D018281:Cholangiocarcinoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000601:surgery*; D010257:Paraneoplastic Syndromes / Q000209:etiology