Malignant tumors of the skin among leprosy patients.

The concept that leprosy is rarely associated with cancer prevail ed until 1937 to such .an extent that it was believed that persons with leprosy were immune to malignan t tumors. This point of view was due principally to the conclusions of Soegaard (H), who, in 1910, analyzed the deaths caused by cancer in leprosaria. Impressed by the fact that in the United States Levin (~a) had not found a single case of cancer among leprosy patients, Sbegam'd (H), sugges ting the possibility of immunity to cancer in persons with this disease, decided to investigate the facts in Norwegian leprosaria. Among 2,269 deaths, he found only 19 cases of cancer, i.e., 0.84 per cent. In view of these results and in the light of the opinion that cancer was rare among persons with leprosy, stressed by directors of various sanatoria outside Norway, including Bjarnhjedinsson (:{) of Heykjavik, Soegaard held no furth er doubts about his views as to the relati ve immunity of leprosy to malignant tumors ( ,18. 49) . His reports had wide repercussion and in 1911 an editorial was published in the Pl'esse M 6dicale (10) in which the limited susceptibility of patients with leprosy to cancer was pointed out, and reference was made to the opinions of Hansen and Neelsen, who stated that they had never seen a case of cancer among leprosy patients. Even in the Far East, Toyama (G I) appeared to confirm the rarity of leprosy-cancer association . However by 1912 Lie (24) held doubts regarding Soegaard's conclusions, and in 1914 Biehler ("), from Higa, submitted sta-