Sweet's syndrome associated with hematological malignancies

Sweet's syndrome, or acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis, is often mistaken for a skin infection given its similar clinical presentation.

To describe the clinical presentations and management of a rare dermatologic condition associated with hematological malignancies.

Case series; Chart review of patients at Moffitt Cancer Center between 2017 and 2020.

The subjects are a 79 year-old man (Patient 1) with Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), a 66 year-old woman (Patient 2) with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a 56 year-old man (Patient 3) with AML, and a 69 year-old man (Patient 4) with MDS. Patient 1 was initially misdiagnosed with neutropenic fever. Patient 2 was incidentally discovered to have erythematous skin lesions prior to initiating chemotherapy. Before starting second line chemotherapy, patient 3 developed pathergy at the site of a PICC line. Patient 4 developed erythema around a newly placed port before initiating chemotherapy. Only patients 1 and 3 received glucocorticoids. Patients 2, 3, and 4 were able to initiate chemotherapy without further complications.

Heterogeneity of subjects in terms of prognostic factors, stage at diagnosis, and treatment strategies.

Early recognition and treatment of malignancy-associated Sweet's syndrome is imperative to limit patient morbidity and expeditiously provide anti-cancer treatments.