Calcifying epithelioma of Malherbe of cheek: a diagnostic challenge

Abstract

<p class="abstract">Malherbe’s calcifying epithelioma is a very rare benign tumour in area of cheek but generally present in first two decades of life. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) and radiological imaging technique are not of great help in diagnosing this tumour. We hereby present a case of 15 year female with cheek swelling since 3 years which turned out to be pilomatricoma on histopathology of specimen of excisional biopsy. </p><p class="keywords"><strong><span lang="EN-US">Keywords: </span></strong>Malherbe’s calcifying epithelioma, Pilomatrixoma, BCL-2, CTNNB1</p>

Pilomatricoma: A diagnostic challenge both for the clinician and cytopathologist

“…The presence of ghost cells or shadow cells is characteristic and a meticulous search is needed as these are difficult to be picked up on cytology. 1 FNAC in our case was misleading as the aspirate showed only multinucleate giant cells along with few squamous cells which were presumed to be contaminants. Ghost cells were not present in the aspirate in our case leading to an erroneous diagnosis.…”

“…Pilomatricoma also known as calcifying epithelioma of Malherbe is a rare benign tumour which is seen to arise from the matrix cells of the hair follicle and accounts for only 0.12% of all skin tumours. 1 They are commonly asymptomatic, seen to arise in head and neck region and upper trunk area and show a slow but progressive increase in size.…”