Case Report
Lymph node metastasis from a primary skin carcinoid tumour

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0007-1226(03)00210-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Carcinoid tumours are uncommon neuroendocrine neoplasms that may be found anywhere in the body but are most commonly seen in the gastro-intestinal and respiratory tracts. Metastasis to the skin occurs in a small proportion of these but primary cutaneous carcinoid tumours are exceedingly rare. There have been five previous cases of primary carcinoid tumours occurring in the skin. To our knowledge, this is the first report of metastasis from a primary cutaneous carcinoid tumour.

Section snippets

Case report

A 70-year-old lady was referred by her GP to the plastic surgery service in Plymouth with a lesion on her scalp. The GP attempted to biopsy the lesion, thinking it was a sebaceous cyst but found it to be a hard mass. The pathology report diagnosed an adnexal tumour of skin or possibly a metastasis from a lobular breast carcinoma. No such primary was located; she was otherwise well, although taking diuretic for lower limb oedema.

Excision was performed of the 3×3 cm2 lesion for tissue diagnosis,

Discussion

Oberndorfer first used the term ‘karzinoide’ in 1907 to describe similar tumours that appeared to behave in a more indolent fashion than typical adenocarcinoma. Their incidence is approximately 1.5 per 100,000 population and generally carcinoid tumours have a good prognosis. They are currently thought to arise from neuroendocrine cells in different sites of the body that are linked by a common neuroendocrine phenoype, originating from pluripotent cells that differentiate locally under factors

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