Multiple Primary Self-Healing Squamous-Cell ``Epitheliomas'' of the Skin: Generalized Keratoacanthoma

In 1934, J. Ferguson Smith¹ described a new entity which he called multiple primary self-healing squamous-cell epitheliomas of the skin. The first case which he reported was that of a young man, aged 23, a coal miner, on whom, since the age of 16, multiple tumors of the face, ears, arms, thighs, and legs had developed. They began as red macules, then became papular, and enlarged to become raised tumors which ulcerated and ultimately healed, leaving pitted or smooth scars. As older lesions involuted new ones appeared so that active growths were present constantly. Biopsies of several of the lesions showed on microscopic examination what he considered to be well-differentiated squamous-cell epitheliomas. When the lesions began to heal there was progressive cornification and finally absorption of the tumor and replacement by scar tissue. Smith² reported on his case again in