One of the many clinical and research interests of Rothman1 was the relationship between cutaneous eruptions and internal cancer. He first wrote about this topic in 19251 and again in 1942 in collaboration with Becker and Kahn.2 In 1942, their article described a patient with an eruption that they recognized as unique in its appearance and in its course. This represented the first recorded instance of a cutaneous sign of a pancreatic carcinoma. In retrospect, this case report accurately described the clinical and histologic features of the glucagonoma syndrome, which was not recognized as an entity until 1966.
In 1966, McGavran et al3 described a woman with a bullous and eczematous eruption of the hands, feet, and legs that could not be diagnosed. She was discovered to have a glucagon-containing α-cell tumor of the pancreas in association with abnormally elevated serum levels of glucagon. Church and