Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009;54(1):23-5.
doi: 10.4103/0019-5154.48981.

Breast cancer, dermatofibromas and arsenic

Paul I Dantzig  1
Affiliations

Breast cancer, dermatofibromas and arsenic

Paul I Dantzig. Indian J Dermatol. 2009.

Abstract

Background: Dermatofibromas are common benign tumors in women, and breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women. The aim of this study is to determine if there is any relationship between the two conditions.

Materials and methods: Five patients with dermatofibromas and 10 control patients (two groups) had their skin biopsies measured for arsenic by inductively coupled mass spectrometry. Fifty randomly selected patients with breast cancer and 50 control patients were examined for the presence of dermatofibromas.

Results: The dermatofibromas were found to have an arsenic concentration of 0.171 micrograms/gram, compared with 0.06 and 0.07 micrograms/gram of the two control groups. Forty-three out of 50 patients with breast cancer had dermatofibromas and 32/50 patients with breast cancer had multiple dermatofibromas, compared to 10/50 control patients with dermatofibromas and only 1/50 with multiple dermatofibromas.

Conclusions: Arsenic is important in the development of dermatofibromas and dermatofibromas represent a reservoir and important sign of chronic arsenic exposure. Dermatofibromas represent an important sign for women at risk for breast cancer, and arsenic may represent the cause of the majority of cases of breast cancer.

Keywords: Arsenic; breast cancer; dermatofibromas.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: Nil.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. National Cancer Institute Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results program database. Available from: http://seer.cancer.gov/. [last accessed on 2007 Aug 17]
    1. Lynn, Assaad Dalal. Dermatofibroma, in Dermatology in General Medicine. New York: McGraw Hill; 1993. pp. 1202–3.
    1. Chan S, Gerson B, Reitz RE, Sadjadi SA. Technical and clinical aspects of spectometric analysis of trace elements in clinical samples. Clin Lab Med. 1998;18:615–30. - PubMed
    1. Dantzig PI. A new cutaneous sign of mercury poisoning. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2003;49:1109–10. - PubMed
    1. Dantzig PI. Age related macular degeneration and cutaneous signs of mercury. Toxic Cutan Ocular Toxicol. 2005;24:3–9.