A clinico-pathologic analysis of cutaneous appendageal tumours

Background: Cutaneous appendageal tumours can arise from either the eccrine, apocrine, hair follicles or the sebaceous glands. Majority of the tumours are benign. Final diagnosis requires a good clinical as well as histpathological correlation. The aim of the present study was to assess the clinicopathological characteristic of these tumours. Materials & Methods: The present study was a retro-prospective study carried out in the department of Pathology, Rohilkhand Medical College & Hospital, Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), a tertiary care hospital. The cases were noted, classified and studied according to their age, sex and site. A total of 29 cases were included in the present study over a period of three years. These cases were confirmed to have cutaneous adnexal neoplasm on histopathology. All the specimens were formalin fixed, processed and stained with routine Haematoxylin & Eosin method and special stains were applied wherever necessary. The tumours were classified as apocrine, eccrine, follicular and sebaceous type based on the histopathological report. Results: It was observed that the incidence of skin adnexal tumours was very low in relation to the total number of surgical specimens received in the department of Pathology (0.093%). The mean age of presentation of adnexal tumours in this study was 37.66 years with patients ranging from 10 to 80 years. Females 18 (62.1%) outnumbered the males 11 (37.9%) in the present study. Among 29 cases, 23 cases were benign and 6 cases were malignant. 6 (20.7%) of these tumours were derived from eccrine & apocrine glands, 6 (20.7%) cases showed sebaceous differentiation and 17 (58.6%) cases were tumours of follicular differentiation. The commonest lesion observed was Pilomatricoma in 10 cases (34.4%). Conclusion: Appendageal skin tumours have distinct histological characteristics which differentiates them from other cutaneous tumours. The clinical diagnosis may be difficult because they have overlapping presentations and thus can be differentiated using histopathological examination only.