Primary Lacrimal Sac Melanoma With Metastatic Cervical Disease: A Review of the Literature and Case Report.

Primary melanoma arising from the nasolacrimal sac is a rare form of mucosal melanoma, with only 30 cases previously reported in the literature and none reporting cervical metastatic disease. Given the extremely rare nature of this disease, specific guidelines for staging and intervention are impractical and do not exist. As such, case presentations have formed the basis for management. This report describes the only case to the authors' knowledge of primary nasolacrimal sac mucosal melanoma with cervical metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis, which was detected only with positron emission tomographic computer tomography, and briefly reviews the existing published cases to help assist in the development of a general algorithm for patient care.

Management of early stage cutaneous Merkel cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare but aggressive skin cancer of neuroendocrine origin. As a result, few large studies have been published, and we know of even fewer on disease of the head and neck alone. The most appropriate way to manage patients with early local disease and no sign of metastases neck is controversial. We reviewed management of early cutaneous MCC of the head and neck in 8 hospitals in the United Kingdom over 12 years between 1999 and 2011 (the largest head and neck series in Europe to date), and identified 39 patients (19 men and 20 women) with early disease according to a well recognised classification. A total of 24 patients had stage Ia disease, 11 had stage Ib disease, and 4 were unclassified. Five of those with stage Ia disease developed regional metastases and 7 with stage Ib disease developed regional recurrence. The 2-year overall survival for stage Ia and Ib disease was 62% and 27%, respectively. Our study shows that prognosis is poor after conservative surgical management of stage I disease. Management of the neck is still controversial, and a meta-analysis of all the published data is needed to establish best practice statistically.

Treatment of chronic lip fissures with carbon dioxide laser.

Resurfacing of cutaneous tissue with carbon dioxide laser increases the amount and quality of collagen and elastin subepithelially. We used this technique to ablate 12 chronic lip fissures in one woman and 10 men. Five patients' fissures had persisted for durations ranging from several months to seven years; the other six had fissures that split between one and five times annually, and took weeks or months to heal. Ten fissures had re-epithelialised completely six weeks postoperatively, while in two cases the treatment was repeated. At mean long-term follow-up of 70 months (range 44-93) of 11 cases, eight had had no recurrence. One patient, whose fissure had healed at three months was lost to follow-up; one fissure had not improved; one had recurred less severely; and one had split only once, then healed quickly and not recur. Only one patient had postoperative discomfort that required analgesia, and one had a mildly raised scar. This small series shows that this is a successful, safe technique with low morbidity, however, the technology is not always readily available.

Haemangiomas and vascular malformations of the maxillofacial region--a review.

Congenital vascular anomalies have been and remain poorly understood. Since 1982 haemangiomas and vascular malformations have been recognised as distinct entities that exhibit unique characteristics and demand appropriately tailored treatment plans. However, "haemangioma" still continues to be used as a clinical and pathological description of many different types of vascular anomalies, which complicates both the care of patients and the interpretation of reports in journals. In this review we summarise the current classification, terminology, and the pathological basis of these lesions and discuss their management. The various therapeutic options available and their outcome will be discussed in addition to the recent advances in the psychosocial aspects of care, interventional radiology, laser and pharmacological therapy.

Expression of type 2 nitric oxide synthase and vascular endothelial growth factor in oral dysplasia.

PURPOSE: The small molecule nitric oxide (NO), produced by a family of enzymes called NO synthase (NOS), has a diverse array of functions in both physiologic and pathologic states. Prolonged production of NO by the isoform NOS2 has been implicated in human cancer progression. NO has an important role in angiogenesis, being both an upstream signal and a downstream effector molecule to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The latter group of proteins are crucial for vascular endothelial cell proliferation and permeability. The expression of VEGF increases with cancer progression. Because angiogenesis is a prerequisite for the development of invasive cancer, this immunohistochemical study investigated the expression of NOS2 and VEGF in oral epithelial dysplasia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An immunohistochemical study was performed using monoclonal antibodies to NOS2 and VEGF on archival formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue of 33 cases of oral dysplasia. RESULTS: A significant correlation was found between NOS2 and VEGF expression in oral dysplasia (P <.001). Expression of both NOS2 and VEGF also correlated with the severity of dysplasia (P <.001, P <.002). CONCLUSIONS: These findings may provide further understanding to the complex transformation of oral epithelial dysplasia to invasive carcinoma and the role of angiogenesis in this process.