A survey of the cutaneous disturbances accompanying malignant tumors of internal organs was presented first in 1925.1 The changes observed up to that time were classified in four groups: (a) pruritus and a prurigo-like syndrome with hyperpigmentation, (b) toxic-bullous eruptions, (c) metastatic cutaneous lesions and inflammatory lesions preceding metastases and (d) acanthosis nigricans and similar proliferative changes.
Simple pruritus and prurigo-like eruptions with hyperpigmentation have been observed frequently in cases of internal malignant tumor. The disappearance of the cutaneous manifestations after removal of the tumor and their recurrence with the reappearance of the tumor, as observed in single cases, seemed to prove the causal connection between tumor and eruption.
The toxic, for the most part bullous, eruptions described were manifold in their clinical aspect and could not be recorded as belonging to certain definite types. They simulated erythema multiforme, dermatitis herpetiformis, acute lupus erythematosus and exfoliative dermatitis. Herpes zoster