A STRANGE, green-blue bruise on a woman’s hand actually turned out to be cancer, doctors have revealed.
The woman, who was in her 30s, noticed the bruise a few days after she twisted her hand doing yoga.
But after it did not disappear for two years, she sought help from doctors in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tests showed she had a hemosiderotic fibrolipomatous tumour (HFLT) — a rare, slow-growing cancer that usually forms on the foot or ankle.
Her shocking case was first reported in the medical journal Jama Dermatology.
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Writing in the report, the medics said: “HFLT is a rare and only recently described entity.
“The exact pathogenesis of HFLT has not yet been clarified, and the role trauma plays in its development needs further investigation.”
HFLTs are so rare, accurate figures for how many are found a year are not available.
They can occur at any age but are most common in women in their 50s and 60s.
The disease is usually not deadly but the tumours regularly form again in the same place even if operated on.
In the woman’s case, doctors first noticed the hard “plaque” that had grown on the back of her left hand.
X-rays showed the flesh in her hand had swollen, while MRI scans revealed a small mass lying beneath the skin.
Tissue taken from the mass showed a cluster of long “spindle” cells, which appear in a variety of different tumours.
This showed she had an HFLT, the team said.
They believe it formed because of her yoga injury, with the body’s immune system overreacting to the twist.
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Seven of the eight first recorded cases since HFLT were discovered in 2000 involved some sort of trauma to a hand, foot or ankle.
The medics said: “Clinicians should be on high alert of similar appearing lesions that appear after various injuries, including those involving physical activity and sports.”
