Primary Mucinous Carcinoma

Abstract

Primary mucinous carcinoma of the skin is a rare entity. It usually presents as a painless nodule, cyst, or ulcer in the head and neck region (especially the eyelid). These tumors have a low metastatic potential but tend to recur locally. Histologically, groups of light- and dark-staining epithelial cells form cords, nests, and ducts separated by clear areas representing sialomucin. Due to tumor continuity and a low rate of lymphatic or hematologic spread, Mohs micrographic surgery appears to be an effective treatment. Herein, two cases of primary mucinous carcinoma are presented.

Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy of Primary Mucinous Carcinoma of the Skin

“…4,17 In the rare cases of metastatic disease, the metastases are highly resistant to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. 11,23 In our case, a single micrometastasis was found in a sentinel lymph node. To our knowledge, this is the first case reported thus far to have undergone sentinel lymph node biopsy.…”

“…2,20 The scalp and eyelids are the most commonly involved sites; the latter are highlighted by the vast amount of ophthalmology literature describing this entity. 7,11,12,14,16,20,23 The primary lesion of MCS is usually a solitary, subcentimeter nodule with a characteristic slow growth rate; the lesion may be present for 20 years before the patient seeks medical attention. 2,17 The clinical presentation of MCS lesions is not characteristic and varies in appearance, from pinkish tan to gray, red or blue.…”

“…7 The clinical differential diagnosis is broad and includes epidermal inclusion cyst, lipoma, hemangioma, cystic basal cell carcinoma, melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma. 17,23 Once the pathologic diagnosis of mucinous carcinoma is considered, it is of utmost importance to rule out metastases from other sites. In this case, based on the cytomorphology, metastatic breast and colonic adenocarcinoma are possible considerations in the differential diagnoses.…”

Primary Mucinous Carcinoma of the Scalp

“…Since its first description in 1952, cutaneous MC has been reported to occur on the head [5, 7, 15, 23], neck [6], extremities [11, 13, 17]intertriginous areas [20]and the trunk [1]. MCs may also develop in the gastrointestinal tract [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28], breast [29], lung, ovary and prostate. Therefore MC of the skin has to be differentiated from metastatic lesions [13, 25]of extracutaneous MC.…”

“…Primary cutaneous mucinous carcinoma (MC) is a neoplasm derived from the sweat glands [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25]. Since its first description in 1952, cutaneous MC has been reported to occur on the head [5, 7, 15, 23], neck [6], extremities [11, 13, 17]intertriginous areas [20]and the trunk [1].…”