Dermal and pannicular manifestations of internal malignancy.

The concept that noncutaneous malignancies may induce paraneoplastic inflammatory reactions and neoplastic or non-neoplastic proliferations in the skin is well known. Previous work on this subject primarily provides lists and descriptions of dermatologic entities that are exclusively or occasionally associated with specific or varied internal cancers or precancerous states. This review seeks to provide a different perspective to this subject by emphasizing components of the skin (the dermis and subcutis) as focal points of paraneoplastic phenomena, with the intent of broadening thinking and differential diagnoses when the findings described are encountered in dermatology clinics and dermatopathology laboratories.