Histologically proven leukemia cutis carries a poor prognosis in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

A retrospective study of fifty-eight patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia was undertaken to determine the incidence of leukemia cutis and whether skin involvement serves as a prognostic indicator. A clinical diagnosis of leukemia cutis was made in eleven patients (19 percent), and five patients (8.6 percent) had biopsy-confirmed skin involvement. Patients with biopsy-proven leukemia cutis had a median postdiagnosis survival of only 12.5 weeks compared with fifty weeks for the group without skin involvement. We conclude that leukemia cutis is a biopsy diagnosis that occurs in a minimum of 8.6 percent of patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukemia in whom survival appears to be shortened.