Bowen's disease

 ICD9           = |
 ICDO           = 8081/2 |
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 OMIM           = |
 MedlinePlus    = |
 eMedicineSubj  = derm |
 eMedicineTopic = 59 |
 DiseasesDB     = 1569 |

}} In medicine(dermatology), Bowen's disease (BD) is a sunlight-induced skin disease, considered either as an early stage or intraepidermal form of squamous cell carcinoma. It was named after Dr John T. Bowen, the doctor who first described it in 1912.

Causes

Causes of BD include solar damage, arsenic, immunosuppression(including AIDS), viral infection (human papillomavirusor HPV) and chronic skin injury and dermatoses.

Signs and symptoms

Bowen's disease typically presents as a gradually enlarging, well demarcated erythematous plaque with an irregular border and surface crusting or scaling. BD may occur at any age in adults but is rare before the age of 30 years - most patients are aged over 60. Any site may be affected, although involvement of palms or soles is uncommon. BD occurs predominantly in women (70-85% of cases); about three-quarters of patients have lesions on the lower leg (60-85%), usually in previously or presently sun-exposed areas of skin.

Histology

The cells in Bowen's are extremely unusual or atypical under the microscopeand in many cases look worse under the microscope than the cells of many outright and invading squamous-cell carcinomas. The degree of atypia (strangeness, unusualness) seen under the microscope best tells how cells may behave should they invade another portion of the body.

Treatment

Cryotherapy(freezing) or local chemotherapy (with 5-fluorouracil) are favored by some clinicians over excision.

External links

• Photo
• Slidefr:Bowen

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowen%27s+disease Wikipedia article Bowen's disease.