Adenoid cystic carcinoma is known to be a neoplasm of the major and minor salivary glands but it also occurs in the lacrimal gland, external auditory canal, esophagus, breast and skin.
Adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary gland is a slow-growing malignant tumor. Although metastasis of this tumor develops in abut half the cases, its metastases to the overlying skin is not common, moreover the skin metastasis to the remote site
is
rarely found. Primary cutaneous adenoid cystic carcinoma is rare and histologically indistinguishable from skin metastasis of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the salivary gland.
A 53-year-old man presented a solitary, well-defined, erythematous, 1.3×1/3cm sised nodule on the vertex of the scalp, which revealed the typical histopathologic findings of adenoid cystic carcinoma. One and half years ago, a tumor of the
parotid
gland
was removed and proved to be a cribriform pattern of adenoid cystic carcinoma.
The skin lesion was diagnosed as a skin metastasis of the adenoid cystic carcinoma of parotid gland rather than a primary cutaneous adenoid cystic carcinoma, because a similar pattern of adenoid cystic carcinoma had been discovered onthe parotid
gland
although it developed on the scalp, the usual site of primary cutaneous adenoid cysitic carcinoma.
(Kor J Dermatol 1995;33(2) : 327~331)
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