title: Unusual eyelid tumors with sebaceous differentiation in the Muir-Torre syndrome. Rapid clinical regrowth and frank squamous transformation after biopsy.
abstract: An unusual eyelid tumor with sebaceous differentiation developed in two 70-year-old men and each had an earlier history of one or more colonic carcinomas--the so-called Muir-Torre syndrome. These eyelid tumors were both behaviorally and histopathologically different from previously documented cutaneous neoplasms in this syndrome. In the first case, a sebaceous adenoma took multifocal origin from the epidermis and exhibited an interanastomosing retiform growth pattern in the underlying dermis; the lesion rapidly recurred as a keratoacanthoma after subtotal excision. In the second case, a conjunctival tumor with features of a poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma manifested focal evidence of sebaceous differentiation. Again, after an incisional biopsy, the latter tumor rapidly regrew and transformed into a well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma with massive central necrosis. Although sebaceous carcinoma of the eyelids does not appear to presage the Muir-Torre syndrome, any benign sebaceous or transitional squamo-sebaceous neoplasm should be considered a possible manifestation of this syndrome. Both clear-cut benign and transitional sebaceous neoplasms should also be recognized as having the potential to undergo an ominous clinical regrowth upon subtotal excision and a complete squamous transformation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital, New York, NY 10021.
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Jakobiec
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: La Piana
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hornblass
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Breffeilh
authors.forename: J K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Lackey
mesh_terms: D000236:Adenoma / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005141:Eyelid Diseases / Q000473:pathology; D005142:Eyelid Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007636:Keratoacanthoma / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009336:Necrosis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D012626:Sebaceous Gland Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D013577:Syndrome