Biphasic sarcomatoid basal cell carcinoma (carcinosarcoma): four cases with immunohistochemistry and review of the literature

Abstract

The sarcomatous component of the tumor is best regarded as a metaplastic transformation of the carcinomatous component. These tumors are potentially aggressive if incompletely excised, and complete resection is recommended.

Basal cell carcinoma with a sarcomatous component (carcinosarcoma): A series of 5 cases and a review of the literature

“…We, therefore, extracted all the BCC cases from previous reports and the data would suggest that these lesions behave less aggressively than similar tumors with a squamous or adnexal epithelial component. 10,11,16 Indeed, of the 27 reported cases of this particular group, there have been only two cases where metastasis has occurred. Both of these tumors were particularly unusual in terms of presentation site, stromal components, or size at presentation, which may indicate why they behaved more aggressively.…”

“…More rarely described subtypes include eccrine porocarcinoma, proliferating trichilemmal tumor, and eccrine spiradenocarcinoma. 11 Mesenchymal subtypes reported include heterologous or site-inappropriate forms such as osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma and homologous or site-appropriate variants including leiomyosarcoma and pleomorphic sarcoma. The mesenchyme may also have an undifferentiated malignant fibrous histiocytoma-like appearance as was seen in cases 1, 2, and 5 presented here.…”

Sarcomatoid Basal Cell Carcinoma—Predilection for Osteosarcomatous Differentiation

“…1,4,8,11,20,21,29,34,[39][40][41]45,[51][52][53] The most common single epithelial component is either basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (6 cases 11,29,41,[51][52][53] or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (6 cases 1,39,40,53 ). The remaining cases arose in association with mixed epidermal carcinoma, 11 combined epidermal and adnexal carcinoma, 20,45 eccrine spiradenocarcinoma, 21,34 eccrine porocarcinoma, 40 and Merkel cell carcinoma 8 (Table 1).…”

Lung Sarcomatoid Carcinoma Metastasis to Skin: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

“…However, ever since then, the histogenesis of this tumor has been widely disputed. Four major theories have been proposed so far, namely the collision hypothesis, considering the two parts to be two separate tumors; composition hypothesis (11), implicating that the mesenchymal part is pseudosarcomatous reaction to the malignant epithelial part; divergence (combination) hypothesis (11), suggesting that the two parts diverge from the same stem cell; and conversion hypothesis (12), regarding that the mesenchymal part as metaplastic transformation from the epithelial part. The controversy in pathogenesis is attributed to confusion in nomenclature.…”