• Yung-Wei Chang, Chih-Hung Lee, and Han-Chi Tseng.
• Department of Dermatology, Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2021 Jan 1; 120 (1 Pt 1): 226-233.

Background/PurposeLeukemia cutis (LC), by definition, is the infiltration of neoplastic leukocytes in the skin. The overall incidence of LC is rare. We aimed to investigate the association between clinical characteristics, classifications and prognosis among different types of LC in Taiwan.MethodsWe performed a retrospective analysis of forty-two patients with histopathology proven LC based on skin biopsies in a medical center in Southern Taiwan from 1997 to 2018. The study involved medical records of the patients, clinical manifestations, and outcomes according to different types of leukemia.ResultsThis series consisted of 27 males and 15 females, and the mean age was 55.7 years old. The most common cutaneous features were papules (38%) and nodules (29%), followed by plaques (16%) and ulcers (10%). The most commonly affected sites were the trunk (33%) and extremities (31.5%), although generalized distribution (14%) was not rare. The prognosis of LC was very poor, 76.2% of patients (32/42) died during the follow-up, and the median survival time was 7.2 months (95% CI, 4.53-9.87 months). No statistical significance was found (P = 0.068 for survival curves) among different types of LC.ConclusionThis study was the first large-scale research in regarding to LC of Han Chinese. The commonest clinical presentations were papules and nodules, and the predilection sites were trunk and extremities. Besides, there was the high frequency of LC from AML and MDS in Taiwan. Clinicians should pay more attention to the leukemia patients with extramedullary manifestations due to poor survival outcomes.Copyright © 2020 Formosan Medical Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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