[A special form of Bazex acrokeratosis in small cell bronchial cancer]

A 66-year-old pensioner developed distinct, erythematosquamous and keratonic lesions on the hands and feet within 2 months, and also a progressive red-bluish discoloration of the whole integument. Clinical and X-ray exploration revealed a still asymptomatic small-cell bronchial carcinoma, so that the otherwise inexplicable skin lesions made an acrokeratotic paraneoplastic syndrome of the Bazex type seem most likely. This very rare syndrome has hitherto been observed only in patients with carcinomas of either the bronchial or the upper digestive tract, with or without cervical and mediastinal lymph node metastases. We report on our third patient with Bazex-type acrokeratosis, mainly because of the uncommon distribution and severity of his otherwise typical lesions. In addition, recent reports on this syndrome in the literature are reviewed.