PETTICOAT CANCER AND THE SARI LINK

TYING YOUR UNDERSKIRT (petticoat) tightly around the waist when wearing a sari, can lead to "petticoat cancer" or "sari cancer," as it was previously called. Tying the underskirt too tightly can cause constant cord friction that can lead to chronic inflammation, skin ulceration and, in rare cases, skin cancer.

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Doctors describe two cases in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The first case involved a 70-year-old woman who had a painful skin ulcer on her right flank that wouldn't heal for 18 months. The skin in the surrounding area had lost its pigmentation. She wore a Nauvari sari, tightly wrapped around her waist, for most of her adult life. A biopsy from the area showed that she had a Marjolin ulcer, also known as squamous cell