Cancer Associated With Acanthosis Nigricans

Acanthosis nigricans, rather widely discussed in dermatologic handbooks and journals,¹has been strangely neglected in medical and surgical literature and in publications dealing with cancer. This is the more difficult to understand since in a great number of cases the occurrence of this characteristic cutaneous disease in itself suggests the presence of a coexisting internal cancer in the patient. The association with cancer occurs in 49.74 per cent of all cases of acanthosis nigricans. So far 384 cases of the disease have been reported. The study of a noncancerous disease associated with cancer under definite conditions offers great advantage to cancer research, which becomes wider by the additional investigation of the associated phenomenon and of its relationship to cancer. It is particularly fortunate that this associated phenomenon is represented by a well defined disease of the skin visible at early stages of development. DEFINITION Acanthosis nigricans is a benign