Clinical Characteristics of 75 Patients with Leukemia Cutis

© 2013 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Clinical Characteristics of 75 Patients with Leukemia Cutis

Leukemia cutis (LC) is defined as a neoplastic leukocytic infiltration of the skin. Few clinical studies are available on recent trends of LC in Korea. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical features and prognosis of LC in Korea and to compare findings with previous studies. We performed a retrospective study of 75 patients with LC and evaluated the patients’ age and sex, clinical features and skin lesion distribution according to the type of leukemia, interval between the diagnosis of leukemia and the development of LC, and prognosis. The male to female ratio was 2:1, and the mean age at diagnosis was 37.6 yr. The most common cutaneous lesions were nodules. The most commonly affected site was the extremities in acute myelocytic leukemia and chronic myelocytic leukemia except for acute lymphocytic leukemia. Compared with previous studies, there was an increasing tendency in the proportion of males and nodular lesions, and LC most often occurred in the extremities. The prognosis of LC was still poor within 1 yr, which was similar to the results of previous studies. These results suggest that there is a difference in the clinical characteristics and predilection sites according to type of leukemia.

Key Words: Clinical Characteristics; Leukemia Cutis; Prognosis

Yeon Soo Kang,1 Hei Sung Kim,2 Hyun Jeong Park,3 Jun Young Lee,1 Hyung Ok Kim,1 Baik Kee Cho,3 and Young Min Park1

Department of Dermatology, 1Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, Seoul; 2Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital, Incheon; 3Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea

Received: 31 August 2012Accepted: 24 January 2013

Address for Correspondence:Young Min Park, MDDepartment of Dermatology, Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul 137-701, KoreaTel: +82.2-2258-6223, Fax: +82.2-594-3255 E-mail: [email protected]

http://dx.doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2013.28.4.614 • J Korean Med Sci 2013; 28: 614-619

ORIGINAL ARTICLEDermatology

INTRODUCTION

Leukemia cutis (LC) was first described by Biesiadecki (1) in 1876 and was defined as the cutaneous infiltration of malignant hematopoietic cells causing specific and non-specific skin erup-tions. The clinical features of LC are variable, including macules, papules, plaques, nodules and ulcers. The lesions may be local-ized or disseminated and can occur on any site of the skin (2). Other previous reports in Korea found no obvious difference in clinical patterns according to leukemia type (3-5). In addition, it is not yet known whether the prognosis of cases with LC has changed with the development of new treatment modalities such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and transplantation (6, 7). Due to recent dramatic developments in treatment, a change in the incidence of LC might be predicted. Although some case series of LC have been reported in the literature, a limitation of previous studies was the small number of subjects and insuffi-cient data to accurately identify the clinical characteristics of LC (3-5). LC can be found in 13% of patients with acute monocytic leukemia (AMoL) and in 10%-33% of patients with acute my-elomonocytic leukemia (AMML), but is less common in pa-tients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), ranging from 1.3%-3% and 6%-10% in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (8, 9). In contrast, CLL accounts for only 0.4%-0.5% of leukemia in Korea, and there are only two cases of LC with CLL reported in the Korean literature (10, 11). There was no case of LC with CLL in four Korean studies, including the present study, due to the low incidence of CLL in Korea (3-5). Thus, the incidence of

LC according to the type of leukemia in Western countries can-not be applied to the Korean population. Since 2000, there has been no study analyzing the clinical characteristics of LC; there-fore, it is difficult to identify recent trends in LC. The aim of this study was to present our experience with 75 patients of LC and to analyze the clinical characteristics, exam-ine the current prognosis, and compare our results with those of 62 cases reported in previous studies (3-5).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

PatientsCases diagnosed as LC by skin biopsy were selected from the database of the Department of Dermatology of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital and Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital. Cases were searched between the dates of April 1988 and December 2011, and 75 cases which were histologically confirmed with cutaneous leu-kemic infiltrate and had the underlying hematological malig-nancy were finally included in this study.

Methods We performed a retrospective study of 75 cases of LC. The pa-tients’ underlying hematologic diseases were classified based on the results of bone marrow biopsies and peripheral blood analysis. We evaluated the patients’ characteristics, clinical fea-tures, and prognosis according to the leukemia subtype. Cases of acute leukemia were further classified according to the French-American-British (FAB) classification (12) as acute lymphocytic

Kang YS, et al. • Clinical Characteristics of 75 Patients with Leukemia Cutis

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leukemia (ALL; L1, L2, L3), acute granulocytic leukemia (AGL; AML M1, M2, M3), acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMML; M4), acute monocytic leukemia (AMoL; M5), acute erythro-genic leukemia (AEL; M6), or acute megakaryocytic leukemia (AMLK; M7). Chronic leukemia was classified as either chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

Ethics statementThe study protocol was approved by the institutional review board of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea (IRB No: KC11RISI0665). Because this was a retrospec-tive study, informed consent was exempted by the board.

RESULTS

Age and sex distribution in 75 patients with LC at the time of diagnosisSeventy-five cases were composed of 23 patients with AGL (AML, M1, M2, M3), 11 AMML (AML, M4), 14 AMoL (AML, M5), 1 AEL (AML, M6), 18 ALL, 7 CML, and 1 MDS. The male-female

ratio was 2 : 1. Mean age at diagnosis was 37.6 yr (Table 1).

Clinical appearance of the skin lesionsNodules (33%), papules (30%), and plaques (17%) were the three most common types of LC lesions. Ulcer, vesicles and swelling were uncommon findings of LC. Nodules were the most common lesion in AML and ALL, whereas papules were most frequently seen in CML (Table 2).

Distribution of skin lesionsThe extremities (37%, 40/109) and trunk (28%, 30/109) were the most frequent locations of LC (Fig. 1, 2). In addition, AGL (42%, 16/38) and AMoL (63%, 10/16) lesions were most frequently seen on the extremities; ALL on the trunk (44%, 11/25) (Table 2). Most lesions were multiple (84%, 63/75), while 11 cases (16%) were solitary. Solitary lesions were most common in ALL (28%, 5/18), followed by AML (10%, 5/49).

Interval between the diagnosis of leukemia and the development of LC In 58 of 75 patients (77%), LC developed after the diagnoses of

Table 1. Age and sex distribution in 75 patients with leukemia cutis

Parameters AGL AMML AMoL AEL ALL CML MDS Total

No. of patients Male Female

231013

11 8 3

1410 4

110

1815 3

761

110

755124

Age (yr), Mean (range) 43.7 (16-72) 29.9 (3-66) 47.8 (20-76) 40 (40) 27.1 (11-55) 31.7 (3-53) 66 (66) 37.6 (3-76)

AGL, acute granulocytic leukemia; AMML, acute myelomonocytic leukemia; AMoL, acute monocytic leukemia; AEL, acute erythrogenic leukemia; ALL, acute lymphocytic leuke-mia; CML, chronic myelocytic leukemia; MDS, myelodysplastic syndrome; No., number.

Table 2. Clinical appearance and distribution of skin lesions in 75 patients with leukemia cutis

Skin lesions No. (%) of patients

AGL AMML AMoL AEL ALL CML MDS Total No. (%)

No. of patients subjected 23 11 14 1 18 7 1 75Clinical appearance of skin lesionsMacule 2 (6) 0 1 (5) 0 4 (17) 2 (18) 0 9 (9)Patch 3 (9) 0 1 (5) 1 (100) 2 (9) 1 (9) 0 8 (8)Papule 8 (24) 3 (25) 10 (50) 0 4 (17) 5 (45) 0 30 (30)Plaque 8 (24) 1 (8) 2 (10) 0 4 (17) 2 (18) 0 17 (17)Nodule 10 (30) 8 (67) 5 (25) 0 9 (39) 0 1 (100) 33 (33)Ulcer 0 0 1 (5) 0 0 0 0 1 (1)Vesicle 1 (3) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 (1)Swelling 1 (3) 0 0 0 0 1 (9) 0 2 (2)Distribution of skin lesionsScalp 2 (5) 4 (21) 0 0 4 (16) 1 (11) 0 11 (10)Face 5 (13) 4 (21) 0 1 (100) 4 (16) 1 (11) 0 15 (14)Neck 1 (3) 3 (16) 0 0 0 1 (11) 0 5 (5)Trunk 10 (26) 3 (16) 3 (20) 0 11 (44) 2 (22) 1 (100) 30 (28)Extremity 16 (42) 4 (21) 10 (63) 0 6 (24) 4 (44) 0 40 (37)Genitalia 1 (3) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 (1)Whole 3 (8) 1 (5) 3 (20) 0 0 0 0 7 (6)Body



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leukemia. The mean interval from diagnosis of leukemia to the development of LC was 16.2 months. Four patients (5%) had skin lesions before the diagnosis of systemic leukemia at a mean interval of 2.3 months. Thirteen patients (17%) had concurrent involvement (Table 3).

Interval between the diagnosis of LC and deathForty of 75 patients (53%) died after having been diagnosed with LC during the follow-up period of 23 yr. The mean interval between the diagnosis of LC and death was 8.3 months, and the majority died within 1 yr (88%, 35/40) (Table 4).

DISCUSSION

In this study, we analyzed the clinical characteristics and prog-nosis of LC using the data of 75 patients with LC. We also sum-marized 62 cases from three previous studies (17 cases from 1980-1989 (3), 22 cases from 1988-1995 (4), and 23 cases from 1989-1999 (5)) published in Korea and analyzed the patient sex ratio, clinical manifestations, and lesion distribution to com-pare with the findings of the present study. Previous studies

had shown that there was no difference in clinical characteris-tics according to the clinical type of leukemia, and that the prog-nosis of patients with LC was poor (3-5) (Table 5). However, previous studies included a small number of patients and were therefore limited in accuracy. In this regard, this study is mean-ingful in that it analyzed 75 cases, the largest number of series in the Korean literature, over a period of 23 yr. In the previous studies, a total 62 cases included 12 patients with AGL (AML, M1, M2, M3), 15 AMML (AML, M4), 9 AMoL (AML, M5), 2 AMMKL (AML, M7), 11 ALL, 9 CML, 3 MDS and 1 case of eosinophilic leukemia. In our study, the male-female ratio was 2:1, but in previous studies it was 1.3:1. The propor-tion of males was greater in our study, and there remained a tendency for LC to occur more frequently in middle-aged men. The mean age was 37.6 yr, similar to the results of previous stu-dies (Table 1). In this study, the most commonly clinically observed skin le-sions were nodules, papules, and plaques, in decreasing order. The overall most common type of lesion was nodules (33%); nodules were also the most common lesion in AML (35%) and in ALL (39%). In the previous studies, papules were the overall

Fig. 1. Gross manifestation on face. (A) Asymptomatic, multiple, variable-sized, erythematous papules on the face. (B) Painful, oozing, erythematous, erosive patches on the cheek. (C) Tender, crusted plaque on the chin.

A C

B



Table 3. Interval between diagnosis of leukemia and development of leukemia cutis

AGL AMML AMoL AEL ALL CML MDS Total No. (%)

Skin lesions following systemic involvementNo. of patients 17 7 10 1 16 6 1 58 (77)Mean duration (mos) (range) 17.9 (0.5-126) 26.5 (1.9-120) 19.3 (1-96) 17 (17) 8.9 (1-36) 17.9 (2-48) 15 (15) 16.2 (0.5-126)Concurrent occurrenceNo. of patients 6 2 4 0 0 1 0 13 (17)Skin lesions followed by systemic involvementNo. of patients 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 4 (5)Mean duration (mos) (range) 0 1.8 (0.7-3) 0 0 2.7 (0.7-4.7) 0 0 2.3 (0.7-4.7)


Table 4. Interval between diagnosis of leukemia cutis and death

AGL AMML AMoL AEL ALL CML MDS Total (%)

No. of patients 13 6 4 1 11 5 0 40 (53)Mean duration (mos) (range) 6.7 (0-36) 3.8 (0-8) 21.8 (2-59) 2 (2) 4.1 (0.2-7) 17.4 (0-60) 0 8.3 (0-60)


A

C

B

D

Fig. 2. Gross skin lesions on the trunk or extremities. (A) Multiple, erythematous nodules on the trunk. (B) Multiple, erythematous nodules on the whole body. (C) Pruritic, ery-thematous papules on both extremities. (D) Solitary, reddish-brown mass on the ankle.

most common lesions (31%), as well as being the most com-mon lesion in AML (29%) and in ALL (33%). Nodules were the second most common lesion (26%). Compared with previous

studies, nodules have increased as a proportion of all lesion types. The predilection sites of LC according to leukemia type differ


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Table 5. Age, sex, clinical appearance and distribution of skin lesions in 62 patients with leukemia cutis in the Korean dermatologic literature (Ref. 3-5)

Parameters AGL AMML AMoL AMKL ALL CML MDS EL Total (%)

No. of patients 12 15 9 2 11 9 3 1 62Male 6 10 4 2 6 6 3 1 38Female 6 5 5 0 5 3 0 0 24

Age (yr) 35.4 34.8 49.6 48.0 21.7 31.7 59.7 33.0 33.2Clinical appearance of skin lesionsMacule 3 (10) 3 (33) 3 (21) 0 5 (28) 2 (17) 0 0 16 (18)Patch 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0Papule 8 (28) 2 (22) 6 (43) 0 6 (33) 4 (33) 2 (66) 0 28 (31)Plaque 5 (17) 4 (44) 1 (7) 0 2 (11) 2 (17) 0 1 (33) 15 (16)Nodule 11 (38) 0 3 (21) 1 (33) 3 (17) 4 (33) 1 (33) 1 (33) 24 (26)Ulcer 0 0 1 (7) 0 0 0 0 1 (33) 2 (2)Vesicle 1 (3) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 (1)Swelling 1 (3) 0 0 2 (66) 2 (11) 0 0 0 5 (5)Distribution of skin lesionsScalp 4 (11) 4 (27) 1 (7) 0 4 (24) 1 (8) 0 0 14 (13)Face 6 (17) 4 (27) 1 (7) 1 (50) 1 (6) 2 (17) 0 0 15 (14)Neck 2 (6) 2 (13) 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 (4)Trunk 10 (28) 3 (20) 6 (40) 0 6 (35) 4 (33) 3 (60) 1 (50) 33 (32)Extremity 12 (33) 2 (13) 7 (47) 1 (50) 5 (29) 4 (33) 2 (40) 1 (50) 34 (33)Genitalia 2 (6) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 (2)Whole 0 0 0 0 1 (6) 1 (8) 0 0 2 (2)Body

AGL, acute granulocytic leukemia; AMML, acute myelomonocytic leukemia; AMoL, acute monocytic leukemia; AMKL, acute megakaryocytic leukemia; ALL, acute lymphocytic leukemia; CML, chronic myelocytic leukemia; MDS, myelodysplastic syndrome; EL, eosinophilic leukemia; No., number.

among reports. While some reports found no apparent predi-lection for the sites of involvement (2, 13), others reported that LC had different predilection sites according to the type of leu-kemia; ALL and CLL occur mainly on the face and extremities, CML shows generalized distribution, and AML is characterized by infiltration into oral mucosa (10). In this study, the extremi-ties (37%) were the most frequent location of LC. In previous studies, the extremities (33%) and trunk (32%) were the most common location. There was no difference in the most com-mon predilection sites between our study and previous studies. Interestingly, in contrast to the previous studies dealing with the small number of subjects, there were some differences in predilection sites according to the type of leukemia in our study. In particular, AGL lesions were most frequently seen on the ex-tremities (42%), as were AMoL lesions (63%) and CML lesions (44%); however, most ALL lesions were found on the trunk (44%). LC may present concurrently with bone marrow disease, may be the first sign of relapse, or may precede bone marrow infiltration by several months (2, 14). In this study, 95% of LC developed after the diagnoses of leukemia or showed concur-rent involvement. Only 5% of cases had skin lesions before the diagnosis of systemic leukemia. In a previous study, 82% (18/22) of LC developed after the diagnoses of leukemia or concurrent involvement, and 18% (4/22) of LC developed before the diag-nosis of systemic leukemia (4). These results demonstrate a de-creasing tendency in the number of the cases in which skin le-sions preceded the diagnosis of systemic leukemia due to early diagnosis of leukemia.

Because the previous studies lacked information on follow-up for treatment and prognosis, we analyzed these factors for LC in the present study. In our study, about half of patients died after the diagnosis of LC. The mean interval between diagnosis of LC and death was 8.3 months, and the majority died within 1 yr. This is also in accordance with other reports (6, 15, 16). Su et al. (15) reported that 88% of patients died within 1 yr. Shaikh et al. (16) reported that the mean survival period of patients with LC was 12.5 weeks, which is far lower than the 50 weeks report-ed for patients without LC. In a previous study, Jang et al. (4) re-ported that the mean interval between diagnosis of LC and death was 3.8 months, and Jang et al. (5) reported that it was 4.8 months. Compared to previous studies, the present study re-ported an extended mean interval, and this may be related to the development of new treatment modalities. Nevertheless, the poor prognosis may be explained by the fact that LC hin-ders a complete response to chemotherapy and occurs together with the advanced or accelerated progression of leukemia, which is frequently accompanied by infiltration into other organs such as the liver, spleen and lymph nodes (5, 6, 17, 18). LC may indi-cate an advanced disease and is a marker of rapid progression. This study has a limitation because we could not compare the incidence of LC according to the type of leukemia as epide-miological data on the incidence and prevalence of leukemia patients according to the type of leukemia were unavailable. Further study is needed to analyze the incidence of LC by type of leukemia. In conclusion, the present study found a difference in the



clinical characteristics and predilection sites according to the type of leukemia. LC is a valuable marker of poor prognosis and can precede the relapse of systemic leukemia. Early detection of an extramedullary relapse is important, and follow-up by a hematologist as well as a dermatologist is essential.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

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Clinical Characteristics of 75 Patients with Leukemia Cutis