Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2004, 203(4)

Case Report

Primary Cutaneous Mucinous Carcinoma Initially Diagnosed as Metastatic Adenocarcinoma

TADASHI TERADA, YOSHIHARU SATO,¹ KAZUO FURUKAWA² and MAKOTO SUGIURA³

Department of Pathology, Shizuoka Municipal Shimizu Hospital, Shizuoka 424-8636, ¹Sato Hospital, Shizuoka 424-8636, ²Department of Surgery, and ³Department of Dermatology, Shizuoka Municipal Shimizu Hospital, Shizuoka 424-8636

The authors report a rare case of primary mucinous carcinoma of the skin initially diagnosed as a metastatic adenocarcinoma. The tumor occurred in the right axilla in a 75-year-old man. Initial pathological diagnosis was metastatic adenocarcinoma. However, no primary focus was found in the body. The revised diagnosis by the authors was primary cutaneous mucinous carcinoma. The tumor (1.5 cm) was characterized by proliferation of atypical epithelial cells arranged in cell nests with many pseudolumens resembling adenoid cystic carcinoma. It was also characterized by much mucinous stroma or pool around tumor cells. No apparent eccrine or apocrine differentiation was noted histologically and immunohistochemically. The present case suggests that primary cutaneous mucinous carcinoma may be misdiagnosed as metastatic adenocarcinoma, and that it may resemble adenoid cystic carcinoma.

keywords —— mucinous carcinoma; skin; axilla; metastatic skin carcinoma

© 2004 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Address for reprints: Tadashi Terada, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Pathology, Shizuoka Municipal Shimizu Hospital, Shimizu-Miyakami 1231, Shizuoka 424-8636, Japan.

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