Cutaneous granulocytic sarcoma arising at the site of radiotherapy for breast carcinoma

Carcinogenic effects of radiotherapy in breast cancer are well-known. Longt erm follow-up of these patients shows a significantly increased risk of leu kemia. Cutaneous granulocytic sarcoma is an uncommon leukemia cutis that us ually occurs in association with acute myelocytic leukemia or myeloprolifer ative disorders. We report a case of cutaneous,granulocytic sarcoma in a 44 -year-old woman who had been treated six months earlier for breast adenocar cinoma. The treatment had associated lumpectomy, axillary lymph node dissec tion and radiotherapy. Skin lesions appeared firstly and predominantly on t he irradiated area. Haematological investigations were normal and the diagn osis of isolated sarcoma was made. The uncommon features of this case were the short interval between radiotherapy and the occurrence of leukemia skin lesions and the fact that, to our knowledge, this is the first report of l eukemia cutis localised on the irradiated area. The responsibility of radia tion in the distribution of cutaneous lesions of granulocytic sarcoma is di scussed.