A case of cutaneous plasmacytoma treated with thalidomide

Cutaneous involvement has been reported in all types of malignant plasma cell disorders including multiple myeloma, solitary myeloma of bone, plasma cell leukemia, and extramedullary plasmacytoma. But metastatic plasmacytomas in the skin are rare in multiple myeloma and extramedullary plasmacytoma. If skin tumors appear during the course of multiple myeloma, these should be interpreted as a sign of poor prognosis. Treatment of patients with resistant multiple myeloma is challenging. Thalidomide has recently shown antitumor activity in patients with refractory myeloma. Until the introduction of thalidomide, no drugs other than cytotoxic agents and glucocorticoids had shown antitumor activity to cutaneous plasmacytoma. We recently performed a clinicopathologic study of a patient with cutaneous involvement of multiple myeloma and reported our result with thalidomide therapy in this patient.