Recurrent Eccrine Porocarcinoma: A Case Report.

Eccrine porocarcinoma is a very rarely seen malignant skin tumour which originates from the intra-epithelial section of the eccrine sweat glands. They are generally seen in the elderly and are most often located in the lower extremities. This tumour which has a poor prognosis and displays different biological behaviour, often has a tendency to recurrence and metastasis is seen in the skin and lymph nodes. The basis of treatment is surgical excision and if there is lymph node involvement, regional lymph node dissection must be applied. The case is here presented of a 67-year old patient with eccrine porocarcinoma which developed in the inguinal region and showed recurrence.

Increased expression of COX-2 in recurrent basal cell carcinoma of the skin: A pilot study.

Introduction: Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most frequent malignant skin tumor. BCC rarely metastasizes, but it is often locally aggressive. Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is critical for tumor formation, angiogenesis and metastasis. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the members of the family of zinc (Zn)- and calcium-dependent endopeptidases that degrade the extracellular matrix. Materials and Methods: In our study, we used immunohistochemical methods for the evaluation of COX-2, MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression in tissue samples of 30 primary and 10 recurrent skin BCC cases. Results: Immunohistochemical COX-2 expression was significantly higher in the infiltrating pattern of BCC compared with the nodular (P = 0.005) and superficial (P = 0.041) subtypes in the primary BCC group. There was not a significant difference between nodular and superficial BCCs for COX-2 expression. In addition, COX-2 expression was significantly higher in the recurrent BCC group than in the primary BCC group (P = 0.030). There was no statistically significant difference between the histological subtypes of primary BCCs and between primary and recurrent BCCs for MMP-2 and MMP-9 expressions. Conclusions: Our data confirm previous findings that COX-2 and MMP-9 expressions are increased in BCC. Our results revealed an elevated COX-2 expression in recurrent BCCs. We suggest that COX-2 inhibition might have beneficial effects in BCCs, especially for the tumors with a higher level of COX-2 expression or aggressive phenotype.