BACKGROUND:

Pigmented Mammary Paget’s Disease is a rare variant of this skin condition, an unilateral dermatosis that typically affects the areola-nipple complex. The importance of recognizing this nonspecific pigmented dermatosis resides in its differential diagnosis of cutaneous melanoma, as it presents as an irregular pigmented macula. The histopathological study shows proliferation of melanocytes in the suprabasal layers of epidermis, phagocytosis of melanin and melanophages in dermis. These findings are very similar to cutaneous melanoma, in addition to the presence of malignant clear epitelial cells that are characteristic of Paget’s disease. Immunohistochemistry is part of the approach of patients with lesions that shows proliferating melanocytes to rule out other neoplasms. Making an accurate diagnosis by correlating the clinical, histopathological study and immunohistochemistry allows the dermatologist to approach patients with mammary pigmented mammary Paget’s disease with a multidisciplinary team for the diagnosis and surgical treatment of the underlying neoplasms that are usually related to this pigmented variant.

CASE REPORT:

We report the case of a 35 years old woman with a pigmented lesion that affected the right areola-nipple complex. With the histopathological and immunohistochemical correlation, the diagnosis of pigmented mammary Paget’s disease was made and after the gynecological approach, this dermatosis was associated with a triple negative microinvasive adenocarcinoma.

CONCLUSION:

Pigmented mammary Paget’s disease is a complicated diagnosis that requires clinicopathological correlation and extension studies to assess its association to underlying neoplasms.

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