Vesiculobullous variant of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma in a Caribbean Émigré.

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) results from human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV) type I infection and may present as a diverse array of cutaneous findings. Often these clinical manifestations are non-specific and overlap significantly with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL). However, it is exceedingly rare for a patient suffering from ATLL to develop vesicular or bullous pathology and only a handful of such cases have been reported in the literature. The authors describe a patient of Jamaican descent afflicted with ATLL who developed an impressive vesiculobullous eruption. This case provides further support of the near complete clinical overlap between ATLL and CTCL. Patients from HTLV endemic areas with consistent clinical manifestations should have viral serologies drawn as the treatment and prognosis of ATLL and CTCL differ greatly.