Specific skin lesions as the presenting symptom of hairy cell leukemia

A 68-year-old Japanese man with a chief complaint of eczema-like dermatosis was diagnosed as having B-cell hairy cell leukemia (HCL) by demonstration of hairy cells in the skin lesions as well as in blood and bone marrow. He was treated with alpha-interferon, resulting in disappearance of skin lesions and reduction of his massive splenomegaly from 18 to 5 cm in about 14 months. Although specific skin lesions in HCL, shown by a review of the literature to occur in about 8% of cases, are not as uncommon as generally assumed, it is rare for HCL to present with specific skin lesions, the present case being only the second of its type mentioned in the literature.