TRANSITION OF MULTIPLE BASAL-CELL CARCINO MAS TO SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMAS IN AN HIV-POSITIVE PATIENT WITH GORLIN-GOLTZ SYNDROME

We report on a 32-year-old male patient with Gorlin-Goltz syndrome, wh o presented with excessive numbers of superinfected basal cell carcino ma. This led us to suspect an underlying HIV infection, which was conf irmed by ELISA and Western blotting. Laboratory investigation of the i mmunological state revealed severe immunosuppression with 267 CD4(+) l ymphocytes and a CD4/CD8 ratio of 0.3. The histological picture showed multiple basal cell carcinomas, some of them transforming into squamo us cell carcinomas. We suspect that the excessive number and the unusu al clinical and histological picture of the basal cell carcinomas in t his patient were probably influenced by the underlying HIV infection.