Dark spot on head after Chemotherpy.

[dyannasez]

A friend of mine was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Stage 3 in November of 2007. She started Chemotherapy in December of 07 and lost all of her hair right before Christmas. Her Chemo was from December 07 to April of 08 with a clear cat-scan. Around the middle of her treatments she noticed a bruise looking spot on the back of her head, its a perfect circle and grows alot of really dark hair fast. When she first lost her hair this spot was not there. She showed her Dr this today at a checkup and he has no idea what it is, but told her to come back in 4 weeks to check it again. I was just wondering if anyone has any idea what this could be, and if she should go get an opinion from a Dermatologist. Any help would be very apperciated thank you :)

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  It would really be difficult for anyone in this forum to tell you what that spot is, since we have not seen and examined it closely.  Chemotherapy can cause darkening of discrete areas of the skin, and this could be one possible explanation.  That spot may also be a bruise.  Chemotherapy can lower platelet counts and make skin capillaries more fragile, which could lead to bruises.  A consult with a dermatologist will certainly help, if your friend's primary physician is at a loss on what's causing that spot.

[dyannasez]

No one has any ideas?