Clinicopathological Study of 43 Cases of Metastatic Skin Cancer

Park, Sang Jin; Lee, Dong Youn; Lee, Eil Soo

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Carcinoma metastatic to the skin is a rare occurrence and there were few reports about the characteristics of metastatic skin cancer in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and histopathological characteristics of metastatic skin cancer in our hospital.
METHODS
A clinical and histopathological observation was made analysing 43 cases of metastatic skin cancer diagnosed at the Department of Dermatology, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine during the last 7 years from 1995 to 2001.
RESULTS
AND CONCLUSION: The results were as follows; 1. The ratio of men to women was 1 : 1.3, and the mean age was 54.4 years. 2. In men, the most common primary tumor was lung cancer, followed by stomach cancer and esophageal cancer. In women, the most common one was breast cancer, followed by stomach cancer. It was an uncommon finding that cutaneous metastases of esophageal cancer showed high incidence (9.3%). 3. Histolopathologic examination revealed that adenocarcinoma(65%) was the most common histologic type, and the second was squamous cell carcinoma(23%). 4. In cases of breast and stomach cancer, cutaneous metastases were found near the primary tumor.