Some Cutaneous Manifestations Associated With Internal Cancer.*

Abstract

Internal cancer should be suspected and investigated in the presence of certain cutaneous manifestations which include among others {a) flgurate erythema {h) melanin spots on the lips and oral mucosa and sometimes other areas and (c) symmetrical papillary hypertrophy of the skin (most commonly in the axillae) with varying degrees of pigmentation.

Acquired Ichthyosis in Kaposi’s Sarcoma

“…Usually, ichthyosis follows the primary disease, but sometimes the reverse situation occurs [1,2,6]. In most instances, there is a close parallelism in time between cutaneous disorder and underlying disease.…”

“…Liver damage with impairment of vitamin A metabolism has been im plicated [1,2], but not proved, as responsible for the development of second ary ichthyosis.…”

“…Secondary ichthyosis has been described as occurring in Hodgkin's disease [6][7][8], multiple myeloma [3,4], cancer of the breast [1,2], cancer of the lung [8], sarcoidosis [5], Ichthyosis can also follow the intake of certain drugs, such as triparanol [9].…”

Cutaneous manifestations of visceral malignancy

“…Whilst it is true that the risk of malignancy in the small intestine is low, many of these patients do have polyps in the stomach and colon which do not have such a benign course (Dormandy, 1957). Pigmented macules on the lips do not always indicate gastro-intestinal polyposis and there have been a number of instances reported (Calnan, 1960;Belisario, 1965) in which no gastro-intestinal abnormality was found.…”

“…At the time I was not aware that this condition had previously been described by a French surgeon, Ulysse Trelat, some time before his death in 1890. The association is well known on the Continent and is called the sign of Trelat (Belisario, 1965;Ronchese, 1965).…”