Inflammatory cutaneous metastasis front laryngeal carcinoma

The authors report the case of a 64-year-old man who presented with erythem atous infiltrating plaques sited on his right supraclavicular and infraclav icular regions. Five years before a laryngeal epidermoid carcinoma had lymp hadenectomy removed. After two years the patient underwent lymphadenectomy and radiotherapy for the presence of metastasis in his right cervical lymph nodes. He was disease free until two months before our examination when sm all red spots appeared on his right supraclavicular region, slightly enlarg ing. A skin biopsy was performed ansi histological examination showed the p resence of metastatic cells inside dilated lymphatic vessels. Immunohistoch emical markers showed only positive staining of atypical cells with monoclo nal anti-cytokeratin antibodies (cytokeratin BORTHO=34betaE12) confirming t he epithelial origin of metastastic cells. A diagnosis of inflammatory cuta neous metastasis from laryngeal epidermoid carcinoma was given. This type o f metastasis has been frequently observed in patients with breast carcinoma and it has also been described during the course of other malignant tumour s. Malignant tumour of the larynx generally spreads to regional lymph nodes or, through blood, to the lungs. Skin metastasis have rarely been describe d, and always as multiple or solitary nodules. According to our knowledge t his is the first case of inflammatory cutaneous metastasis from laryngeal e pidermoid carcinoma reported in the literature.