Skin Metastasis of Neuroendocrine Carcinoma Arising in the Uterine Cervix / 대한피부과학회지

ABSTRACT

Neuroendocrine carcinoma is known to have features of neuroendocrine and epithelial differentiation through immunochemical and biochemical investigation and Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare primary malignancy of the skin belonging to the broad spectrum of tumors of the neuroendocrine system. Small cell carcinoma of uterine cervix, also a kind of neuroenodcrine carcinoma, is rarely reported and it is much more exceptional in the world that cervical carcinoma metastases to distant skin. Further more this may be the first case of a uterine neuroendocrine carcinoma metastasizing to the skin in Korean medical literature. We report a case of 74-year-old woman who presented with a somewhat fixed subcutaneous nodule measuring 2.5 cmX0.8 cm on the left side of forehead. A biopsy of the nodule revealed a poorly differentiated carcinoma under the muscle without involvement of upper structures and it showed neuroendocrine differentiation by immunohistologic studies. Before appearing as cutaneous manifestation 2 months ago, she had showed a history of abnormal vaginal bleeding and diagnosed as a cervical neuroendocrine carcinoma, especially small cell carcinoma histologically.