Summary
We describe two patients with BRAF‐mutated melanoma of the epithelioid cell type arising from primary acquired melanosis with severe atypia of the right bulbar conjunctiva. Patient 1 was a 71‐year‐old Japanese man. After adjuvant cryotherapy and enucleation of the right eyeball, therapy with vemurafenib was administered for a distant metastasis to a lumbar vertebra, accompanied by erythema multiforme and two keratinous tumours. The patient died due to metastases to the liver and multiple vertebrae, despite therapy with nivolumab and combination therapy with dabrafenib plus trametinib. Patient 2 was a 72‐year‐old Japanese man. After adjuvant cryotherapy, periodic mitomycin C eye drops, and excision of the superficial portion of the right parotid gland and the dissection of cervical lymph nodes, he was treated with adjuvant combination therapy with dabrafenib plus trametinib. Dermatologists should be familiar with BRAF‐mutated conjunctival melanoma, which is usually located on the bulbar conjunctiva and associated with more frequent distant metastasis.
A 90-year-old Japanese woman presented with a dome-shaped, dark-red, ulcerated nodule measuring 23 mm × 19 mm × 9 mm on the right side of the nasal root. Histologically, anastomosing cord-like arrays of atypical polygonal keratinocytes exhibiting internal pseudolumina containing detached cells and erythrocytes were observed. Although acantholytic and cohesive areas overlapped, cancer pearls were not detected. The lower epidermis partially demonstrated scattered dyskeratotic and acantholytic keratinocytes with loss of polarity, continuous with an underlying tumor mass. The tumor cells were positive for a variety of cytokeratins, p40 and vimentin. The Ki-67 proliferation index was 50-60%. Both CD31 and CD34 were expressed in reactive blood vessels of the tumor. A local excision margined by 1 mm was performed, followed by X rays and electron beam irradiation. Neither lymph node nor distant metastasis has appeared over the 14 months since the excision. We performed a review of the published work and identified 24 previously reported patients with pseudovascular squamous cell carcinoma of the skin, oral mucosa and vulva to reassess the prognosis of this tumor. In 12 of these patients (50%), sites other than the head and neck were involved. Eight (33%) tumor-associated deaths occurred. It is believed that pseudovascular squamous cell carcinoma has a tendency to develop at morbid skin and mucous membranes sites in organs other than the face and neck and to possess an aggressive clinical behavior.
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