CLINICAL CASES   

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2004 October;139(5):493-7

Copyright © 2004 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Erythema gyratum repens. Case report

Cannavò S. P., Borgia F., Guarneri C., Manfrè C.

Dermatology Section Department of Environmental Social Medicine University of Messina, Messina, Italy

Paraneoplastic dermatoses are skin pathologies without an intrinsically neoplastic nature but which followed a close parallel course with a malignancy, of which they represent the cutaneous markers. This group includes erythema gyratum repens (EGR), a peculiar figurate dermatosis first described by Gammel in 1953, almost constantly associated with malignancies, primarily lung cancer. Therefore, its recognition imposes a meticulous screening to detect an otherwise unknown cancer. The authors describe the case of a 75 year-old man who presented the onset of cutaneous features suggestive of EGR, allowing the early diagnosis of an underlying, silent lung cancer; the surgical removal of the malignancy determined the complete resolution of the skin manifestation. No relapses were observed at 1 year follow-up. The authors review the literature on this topic and discuss the main pathogenetic hypotheses.