Multiple myeloma first observed as multiple cutaneous plasmacytomas.

A 62-year-old woman had multiple plasmacytomas of the skin with no roentgenographic or bone marrow evidence of multiple myeloma. Serum IgA-lambda level was increased to 1,000 mg/dL (normal range, 90 to 450 mg/dL). The skin lesions regressed completely when the patient was treated with melphalan. She had recurrence of a skin plasmacytoma and lytic bone lesions ten months later and died of bronchopneumonia 11 months after the was first seen. Solitary skin plasmacytomas are rare, and multiple skin plasmacytomas are even rarer. Occasionally, these lesions may precede roentgenographic and bone marrow evidence of multiple myeloma.