Petticoat Cancer: How Your Saree Could Affect Skin Cancer Risk? - Video

A tightly tied waist cord of the underskirt (petticoat) traditionally worn under a saree, particularly in rural parts of India, may lead to what has been dubbed 'petticoat cancer,' warn doctors in the journal BMJ Case Reports after treating two women with this type of malignancy. The petticoat is usually tied very tightly around the waist with a cord. The tight cord of the petticoat often leads to dermatoses related to chronic friction and maceration, resulting in dermatitis and depigmentation. In rare cases, chronic friction may lead to the development of squamous cell carcinoma.

This phenomenon has previously been described as "saree cancer," but it is the tightness of the waist cord that's to blame, researchers point out. The first case concerned a 70 year old woman who sought medical help because of a painful skin ulcer on her right flank that she had had for 18 months and which wouldn't heal. The skin in the surrounding area had lost its pigmentation. She wore her petticoat underneath her saree which was tightly tied around her waist. A biopsy specimen revealed that she had a Marjolin ulcer, also known as squamous cell carcinoma.

The second case concerned a woman in her late 60s who had had an ulcer on her right flank that wouldn't heal for 2 years. She had worn a traditional type of saree called a 'lugda' every day for 40 years, tied very tightly around the waist without an underskirt. A biopsy specimen revealed that she too had a Marjolin ulcer. The cancer had already spread to one of the lymph nodes in her groin when she was diagnosed.

Authors recommend wearing a loose petticoat beneath the saree to ease pressure on the skin, and to wear loose clothing if skin problems develop to allow the area to heal.

Reference: Rusia K, Madke B, Kumar P, et al, Petticoat cancer: Marjolin ulcer of the waist in South Asian women (a site-specific malignancy), BMJ Case Reports CP 2024;17:e262049.