Roel Erik Genders

Hypertrophic lichen planus (HLP) is a chronic T-cell-mediated inflammatory disease characterised by pruritic hypertrophic or verrucous plaques on the lower limbs. We report a case of an 87-year-old woman with a 12-year history of HLP on both lower legs presenting with malignant transformation of one lesion into a squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Malignancy developing in cutaneous lichen planus is rare, with less than 50 cases reported in the literature.

An 83-year-old woman presented with erythema, papules and nodules on the left upper arm (figure 1A). She was treated with antibiotics by her general practitioner, with no disease response. Eight months earlier a 2.5?cm poorly differentiated primary cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the left preauricular area, with metastases to the regional lymph nodes, was staged T2N2M0 (tumour, node, metastases).