Loading...
Early in my career, I encountered one of the most dramatic cases that I have seen. A friend had a prior diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma, presumably in remission. She presented with intense pruritus, which turned out to be the initial indication of active disease, to which she eventually succumbed. Pruritus is a B-type symptom for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, and my friend's case, although dramatic, turned out to be a rare one. I have often searched, with minimal results, for malignancy in patients with unexplained pruritus and no skin lesions. I have also considered malignancy as a cause of unexplained chronic nonspecific dermatitis.
Researchers conducted a large, population-based cohort study in patients with follow-up data from the U.K. H…