Acquired Hypertrichosis lanuginosa

Abstract

Acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa occurred in a man with lung cancer. Fine Ianugo-like hair covered his face, trunk, and extremities, and there were marked pigmentation of oral mucous membrane and a painful red tongue. Our study revealed a high concentration of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in the serum of the patient. We considered that CEA might be an important etiological factor of this disease.

Acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa: Case report and review of the literature

“…AHL may be associated with several manifestations, including burning glossitis [8,12,13,29,33], papillary hypertrophy of the tongue [20], disturbances of taste [40] and smell, diarrhea [18,31], adenopathy, and weight loss [2], and other skin anomalies such as scleroderma [17], acanthosis nigricans [10,38], and seborrheic keratoses [30].…”

“…Since 1865, approximately 50 cases have been described in the literature, usually associated with malignant diseases [2,3]. Malignant neoplasms more frequently associated with AHL include lung cancer [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and colorectal carcinomas [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], but it has also been described in association with lymphomas [29,30] as well as carcinomas of the kidney [31], pancreas [32], breast [1,[33][34][35], uterus [29,36,37], ovary [38], bladder [39], gallbladder [40], leukemia [41], and liver metastatic adenocarcinoma [42]. In women with AHL, the more frequent malignancy is colorectal cancer, followed in order of frequency by lung cancer and breast cancer; in men, lung cancer is the malignancy most frequently associated with AHL, followed by colorectal cancer.…”

Rectal cancer associated with acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa as a possible cutaneous marker of internal malignancy

“…Acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa is frequently associated with internal malignancy, with sporadic reports of acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa being associated with such malignancies (as colorectal cancer and lung cancer). [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] The present case was associated with rectal cancer, and the patient had noticed hypertrichosis 4 months before visiting our hospital. We suggest that this phenomenon is useful as a skin marker of malignancy.…”

“…[1][2][3] Most cases are associated with malignant tumors. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] We experienced a case of acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa associated with rectal cancer. We present and discuss the case, since this phenomenon has received little attention in the field of gastroenterology.…”

The ‘Mantle Hair of Pinkus’

“…Based on that report it was assumed that mantle hairs are a histological marker of acquired hypertrichosis lanuginosa [15], Since the publication of Hegedus and Schorr [14], bioptical findings from 16 additional cases of this paraneoplastic syndrome have been reported [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. In 3 cases only 'some' mantles [19,21 ] or 'mantle-like changes' [24] were observed.…”