Histologically proven leukemia cutis carries a poor prognosis in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia
Shaikh, B.S.; Frantz, E.; Lookingbill, D.P.
Cutis 39(1): 57-60
1987
ISSN/ISBN: 0011-4162 PMID: 3802911 Document Number: 289475
A retrospective study of fifty-eight patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia was undertaken to determine the incidence of leukemia cutis and whether skin involvement serves as a prognostic indicator. A clinical diagnosis of leukemia cutis was made in eleven patients (19 percent), and five patients (8.6 percent) had biopsy-confirmed skin involvement. Patients with biopsy-proven leukemia cutis had a median postdiagnosis survival of only 12.5 weeks compared with fifty weeks for the group without skin involvement. We conclude that leukemia acutis is a biopsy diagnosis that occurs in a minimum of 8.6 percent of patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in whom survival appears to be shortened.