Sweet's syndrome and malignancy: report of the first case associated with adenocarcinoma of the lung.

Sweet's syndrome is a rare dermatosis characterized by fever, neutrophilia, raised painful erythematous plaques and a dense dermal infiltrate consisting of mature neutrophils. About 15% of published cases occurs in association with hematologic malignancies, so that the syndrome is considered a paraneoplastic phenomenon; conversely, the association with solid tumors is very rare (up to now seven cases). We report the first case of Sweet's syndrome associated with adenocarcinoma of the lung. The syndrome appeared when the tumor was in remission after five courses of chemotherapy, and remained the only sign of underlying malignancy for 2 months, when lung cancer relapsed.