Cutaneous findings in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
Publication Date
2004-06Author
Agnew, KL
Ruchlemer, R
Catovsky, D
Matutes, E
Bunker, CB
Type
Journal Article
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Background Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a malignancy characterized by clonal expansion of B lymphocytes with distinct morphology and immunophenotype. The dermatological literature relating to CLL is sparse. A global descriptive survey of a large number of CLL patients has not previously been published. Objectives To report the spectrum of dermatological conditions seen in a large series of CLL patients. Methods Skin complications in patients with established CLL were identified retrospectively from clinical and photographic records, principally a database of over 750 consecutive cases. These events were classified, enumerated and compared. Results Forty patients with 125 skin manifestations were identified and studied. Forty-one manifestations had documented clinical or histological atypia. In 2 1 of these 4 1 complications there had been no prior inummosuppressive therapy. We observed that cutaneous malignancies frequently presented atypically both clinically and histologically. There were 18 patients with 56 instances of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and clinical atypia was more common with SCC than with BCC. Other cutaneous findings included varicella zoster (n = 6), leukaemia cutis (n = 3), acute graft-versus-host disease (n = 5), cutaneous drug eruptions (n = 9), multiple warts (n = 3), herpes simplex (n = 3), cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (n = 2), eosinophilic folliculitis (n = 2), malignant melanoma (n = 2) and Merkel cell tumour (n = 2). Conclusions We have identified a range of dermatological conditions in CLL patients, with a tendency to atypical presentations. The atypia was independent of prior chemotherapy.
Collections
Version of record
Research team
Molecular Haematology (including Cytogenetics Group and Cell Markers)
Language
English
License start date
2004-06
Citation
BRITISH JOURNAL OF DERMATOLOGY, 2004, 150 pp. 1129 - 1135
Publisher
BLACKWELL PUBLISHING LTD