Recurrent Cutaneous Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of Forehead

Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC) is a malignant tumour more commonly seen in salivary glands and rarely arises from the skin as adnexal tumour. Cutaneous ACC is a rare malignant adnexal tumour of eccrine origin. It has an indolent course and rarely metastasizes. Hereby, authors report a case of 48-year-old male with complaints of swelling on right forehead present for the past four years. Clinical diagnosis of infected sebaceous cyst was made and excised with simple excision. The swelling reappeared within 15 days of first surgery. The cytological examination of the swelling revealed abundant cellularity with predominantly cohesive clusters of monomorphic population of cells centered around eosinophilic hyaline globules suggestive of ACC. Retrieval of previous biopsy report revealed diagnosis of ACC reaching the margins of excision, the report of which was neither collected by either operating surgeon nor by the patient. Histopathological examination revealed classical cribriform pattern of arrangement of tumour cells with perineural infiltration by tumour cells. Immunohistochemistry further confirmed the diagnosis. The present case report brings out the importance of clearance of surgical margins in malignant tumours, including skin adnexal tumours. It also highlights the importance of histopathological examination of benign looking skin adnexal tumours.

Novel Approaches in Surgical Management: How to Assess Surgical Margins

The concept of surgical margins was born a long time ago but still lacks a univocal and sound understanding. The current biological rationale behind the recommendations on margins management relies on two pillars: (1) the observation that groups of cancer cells can leave the macroscopic tumor and disseminate throughout adjacent tissues with different degrees of aggressiveness; (2) the belief that removal of all (or most of) cancer cells can cure the patient. However, this background is undermined by some pieces of evidence. For instance, it has been proven that tissues surrounding cancer often bear precancerous traits, which means that cutting through non-cancerous tissues does not equate to cut through healthy tissues. The head and neck exquisitely poses a number of challenges in the achievement of negative margins, with special reference to anatomical complexity, high density in relevant structures, and unique histological heterogeneity of cancers. Currently, intraoperative margins evaluation relies on surgeons’ sight, palpation, ability to map tumor extension on imaging, and knowledge of anatomy, with some optical imaging technologies aiding the delineation of the mucosal margins of excision. Frozen sections are currently used to intraoperatively evaluate margins, yet with debate on whether and how this practice should be performed. Future perspectives on improvement of margins control are threefold: research is oriented towards refinements of understanding of cancers local progression, implementation of technologies to intraoperatively render tumor extension, and employment of optical imaging modalities capable of detecting foci of residual tumor in the surgical bed.

Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma and Late Onset of Lung Distant Metastasis. A Case Report

Background: Differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC), which includes the papillary and follicular variants, is a common neoplasm. DTC has a very high cure rate and is treated surgically, usually followed by ablation of the post-surgical remnant with radioiodine. Case Presentation: The case of a 68-year-old male patient who underwent a minimally invasive complete thyroidectomy on July 4, 2007 for capsulated follicular carcinoma with margins of excision exempted from neoplastic infiltration (AJCC 2002 pT2 PNX PMX) is presented. Discussion: As the patient showed the presence of a pulmonary metastasis after 11 years, the potential implications of DTC follow-up management are here summarized. Conclusions: Follow up must be continued throughout life.

Breast Carcinoma Arising in Microglandular Adenosis: A Review of the Literature

Microglandular adenosis is widely known as a benign breast lesion that can produce a mass. It differs from other types of adenosis by having an infiltrative pattern of growth and glands lacking a myoepithelial layer. Although in every other aspect the cells lining the glands are epithelial, they stain strongly with S100 protein. Most cases of microglandular adenosis are resolved after adequate excision, but more recent data suggest that this lesion may be a precursor for carcinoma, with atypical microglandular adenosis being an intermediate lesion. Carcinomas arising in a background of microglandular adenosis, although they may be low grade, are commonly estrogen and progesterone receptor negative, in contrast to most conventional low-grade carcinomas unrelated to microglandular adenosis. They also show immunopositivity for S100 protein, similar to microglandular adenosis. Diagnostic problems include differentiating microglandular adenosis from carcinoma and assessing the extent of the carcinoma component. In this review, we discuss the histomorphologic and immunophenotypic characteristic of the spectrum of microglandular adenosis lesions with emphasis on diagnostic features distinguishing microglandular adenosis from well-differentiated carcinoma, in particular, tubular carcinoma, and assessment of surgical margins of excision in such lesions.

Animal-Type Melanoma: A Rare Type of Malignant Melanoma with an Indolent Clinical Behaviour

Animal-type melanoma is an exceedingly rare histological variant of melanoma in humans. The name was coined to reflect similar histological features to melanomas in grey horses. We present a case of animal-type melanoma. The neoplastic cells were heavily pigmented with an epithelioid morphology, round nuclei and prominent eosinophilic nucleoli. Only occasional mitotic figures were identified. The tumour cells had diffuse and nodular growth patterns with involvement of the dermis and the subcutaneous tissue. The patient had a “benign cellular blue naevus” excised 9 years earlier from the same site. Review of the previous case revealed heavily pigmented epithelioid cells with similar morphology to the current case. Nuclear pleomorphism was minimal and only a single mitotic figure was present. The lesion extended to the margins of excision. The diagnosis of animal-type melanoma was made on the current case and on the previously misdiagnosed case. Recurrence of this case nine years following incomplete excision further supports the hypothesis that animal-type melanoma is a distinct histological type of malignant melanoma with an indolent clinical course.