A Case of Lymphoma en cuirasse

Jang, Min Soo; Yang, Joon Sung; Chae, Young Soo; Suh, Kee Suck; Kim, Sang Tae

Abstract

Lymphomatous involvement of the skin has been reported to occur in approximately 15% to 20% of patients with lymphoma and in 5% it constitutes the initial presentation of lymphoma. In 1986 Saekow et al. described a patient with a progressively enlarging, indurated lymphomatous plaque on the chest and upper abdominal region that had the shape of a breastplate. They used the term lymphoma en cuirasse. We report a case of lymphoma en cuirasse in a 71-year-old female. She had a well defined, erythematous, hard, indurated plaque on the neck and chest. On physical examination, the right supraclavicular, left inguinal and both axillary lymph nodes were palpable. A Bone marrow aspiration test, chest X-ray and cmputerized tomogram revealed bone marrow and lymph node involvement. Histopathologic examination of the involved skin showed that hyperchromatic and anaplastic lymphocytes were clensely packed in the dermis and subcutaneous fat. On immunohistochemical examination, the tumor cells were positive for the leukocyte common antigen and UCHL-1. We tried to treat the patient with combination chemotherapy, but she refused. After discharge, the patient died one week later.