Sebaceous carcinoma, trichoblastoma, and sebaceoma with features of trichoblastoma in nevus sebaceus.

Abstract

A 73-year-old woman had a linear yellowish plaque on the upper part of her right ear since birth. She presented because of the sudden growth of a nodule within the plaque. The plaque was waxy and yellowish, arching around the upper part of the ear. A reddish to yellowish large nodule was seen within the central part of the arc-shaped plaque; in addition, a small pigmented nodule, a small skin-colored nodule, and a few pigmented papules were observed in the anterior half of the arched plaque. Histopathologic examination revealed the large nodule to be sebaceous carcinoma, the small pigmented nodule to be trichoblastoma, the small skin-colored nodule to be sebaceoma with the features of trichoblastoma, a few pigmented papules to be superficial trichoblastomas due to primitive follicular induction, and the linear yellowish plaque to be nevus sebaceus. Although our literature search revealed scanty reports of definite cases of sebaceous carcinoma in nevus sebaceus, the presented case demonstrated the occurrence of sebaceous carcinoma in nevus sebaceus. Malignant neoplasms occurring in nevus sebaceous seem to be extremely rare, but care should be taken when a large nodule suddenly grows in a lesion of nevus sebaceus, especially in older adults. The presented case also suggested a close relation between trichoblastoma and sebaceoma. The cytokeratin staining pattern could not distinguish between sebaceous and follicular neoplasms in our case.