Abstract
A statistical study of 100 cases diagnosed as Bowen’s disease or Bowen carcinoma at Kurume University Hospital between January of 1995 and December of 2000 was performed. These 100 patients included 58 men and 42 women (the male : female ratio was 1.4 : 1), and the average age of first visit was 74.0 years old. The frequency of Bowen’s disease and Bowen carcinoma among newly visiting outpatients was 0.54%, which was higher than the frequencies reported by other institutes in Japan. Fifteen patients had multiple lesions, among whom eleven were associated with internal malignancies and six with other cutaneous malignant tumors. Although clear arsenic exposure as an etiologic factor could not be confirmed, almost all the cases had consumed water from wells. Kurume University Hospital is located in the Chikugo area of Fukuoka prefecture, where arsenic pollution of subterranean water has been proven, and the causes of this pollution are currently under investigation. The majority (74.3%) of the patients from the Chikugo area were residing in areas of higher concentrations of arsenic in the wells. These results suggested a possible relationship between intake of water from arsenic-polluted wells and the high frequency of the disease in the Chikugo area.
