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Cutaneous metastasis from lung cancer: Retrospective analysis of 30 patients
Author(s) -
Marcoval Joaquim,
Penín Rosa María,
Llatjós Roger,
MartínezBallarín Ignacio
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
australasian journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.67
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1440-0960
pISSN - 0004-8380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-0960.2011.00828.x
Subject(s) - medicine , adenocarcinoma , carcinoma , lung cancer , lung , pathology , metastasis , small cell carcinoma , biopsy , pathological , solitary pulmonary nodule , large cell , nodule (geology) , cancer , paleontology , biology
Lung carcinoma is one of the most frequent sources of skin metastases in male patients. Our objective was to analyse the clinical and pathological features of 30 patients with skin metastases from lung carcinoma. Cutaneous biopsies codified as ‘skin metastasis from lung carcinoma’ during 1988–2009 at Bellvitge Hospital (Barcelona, Spain) were reviewed. The histological types of 30 lung carcinomas (29 men, 1 woman) were squamous cell carcinoma (10 cases), undifferentiated carcinoma (7), adenocarcinoma (6), small cell carcinoma (5) and large cell carcinoma (2). The most frequent clinical presentation was as a solitary nodule (16 cases), and the most frequent site was the head (13 cases). Cutaneous metastases were present at the time of diagnosis of the lung primary tumour in 66% of cases. Skin biopsy might be helpful to establish the histological type of tumour, and thus help with therapeutic decision‐making. Cutaneous metastases from lung cancer remain a poor prognostic feature.