Associated symptoms

If leukemia is responsible for a skin rash, other accompanying symptoms of blood cancer are also to be expected. However, these are usually very unspecific. This means that even if one suffers from several of the possible symptoms, this does not necessarily mean that leukemia is the cause.

Nevertheless, in such a case an early presentation to the doctor for clarification is indicated.Typical accompanying symptoms can be:

Performance reduction
Lassitude
Persistent fever without a recognizable cause
Unwanted weight loss
Night sweats
Pallor
Shortness of breath
Increased susceptibility to infections
Impairment of the blood’s ability to clot

A skin rash is often accompanied by itching in the affected areas. A skin rash caused by leukemia can also cause itching. However, since skin symptoms are only caused by leukemia in extremely rare cases, more frequent symptoms should be considered first in such cases.

If the rare case of leukemia occurs, in which the cancer cells attack the skin, various skin changes can occur. Possible examples are skin spots, thickenings or nodules. Skin spots, however, are found in very many people and in the vast majority of cases have a harmless cause. Nevertheless, newly appeared or suddenly changing skin spots should be examined by a doctor. If necessary, there is a disease requiring treatment, whereby leukemia is one of the absolute exceptions.

Therapy of a leukemia-related rash

If a skin rash is diagnosed as having leukemia as the cause, treatment is carried out according to the form of the underlying disease. In the case of acute leukemia, the use of highly effective drugs that inhibit cell growth in the form of chemotherapy is of primary importance. This treatment is intended to inhibit the spread of malignant leukemia cells and at best destroy them.

Frequently, a cure can only be achieved by a costly stem cell transplantation from a suitable donor. If the cause of the rash is chronic leukemia, the decision for treatment depends on the subtype of the disease as well as the stage of the disease and the general condition of the patient. The options range from chemotherapy to treatment with special drugs that specifically attack the tumor cells to the option of waiting and not initiating treatment at all. The rash is not treated separately but usually recedes if the underlying disease is treated effectively.