Paraneoplastic pemphigus

Paraneoplastic pemphigus is a newly recognized disease that occurs in some patients with lymphoproliferative neoplasms and occasionally, solid tumors. Patients present with an acute illness of the mucosa and skin that shares clinical and histologic features with erythema multiforme, toxic epidermal necrolysis, and pemphigus vulgaris. These patients have antibodies against a complex of epithelial proteins that are present in desmosomes and hemidesmosomes. The course is usually fatal, except in some patients who undergo total resection of their neoplasm.