ALOPECIA DUE TO METASTASES FROM ADENOCARCINOMA OF THE BREAST

Abstract

<h3>REPORT OF CASE</h3> A 41 year old white woman, of Italian ancestry, had her right breast removed for adenocarcinoma on May 21, 1947. About six months later pea-sized nodules, with the pathologic characteristics of metastatic adenocarcinoma, developed around the surgical scar and on the face and back (fig. 1). Later the hair of the scalp began to fall out in spots, leaving irregularly round, smooth areas of alopecia, slightly and unevenly elevated, of the same color as the surrounding skin of the scalp (figs. 1<i>A</i>and 2). Metastases were also found on examination of the chest and bones. Biopsy of an alopecic and a hairy area of the scalp was done on Jan. 23, 1948. Examination showed a partially hairless, but otherwise normal, epidermis. The hairy part presented features of a normal hairy scalp. In the alopecic part of the corium the subcutaneous tissues were densely infiltrated by metastatic