Bowen's disease: report of a case in a Nigerian man

Bowen's disease (cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma in situ), like other cancers of the skin, is rare in black people--to our knowledge, only about 43 cases have been published in the medical literature. We report a 59-year old Nigerian man who presented with a five-year history of a mildly pruritic, slowly enlarging well-circumscribed plaque on the lower part of the anterior region of the chest on the right side. The lesion had an irregular crusted periphery and an atrophic hypopigmented centre. Histological examination confirmed a diagnosis of Bowen's disease. No predisposing factor was found to be relevant in this case--although he might have had brief occupational exposure to arsenic, it is unlikely that this was the cause of his disease. The published literature on Bowen's disease in blacks is briefly reviewed.