Metastatic Basal Cell Carcinoma of the Eyelid

Abstract

I read with great interest the clinicopathologic report by Dr Davies et al, 1 regarding metastatic basal cell carcinoma of the eyelid. The authors indicated that, to their knowledge, their reported case of presumed preauricular soft tissue metastasis of basal cell carcinoma is unique in the ophthalmic literature in the United States and Europe. I would like to draw the authors' attention to a recent report in the ophthalmic literature including two cases of metastatic basal cell carcinoma. In 1989, Bartley et al 2 reported a series of 102 orbital exenterations performed over a 20-year period at the Mayo Clinic. Of the 100 patients with neoplastic disorders, two had metastatic basal cell carcinoma. One patient was found at autopsy to have metastasis to the right middle lobe of the lung and the second patient developed a submandibular lymph node metastasis 9 months after orbital exenteration. These two cases of remote