A Case of Merkel Cell Carcinoma

Min Jae Lee, Yoen Soon Lim, So Yun Cho, Hyung Chul Kang, Jeong Hee Hahm

Copyright ⓒ 1994. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Jul 24, 2015

Abstract

Merkel cell carcinoma is a rare aggressive tumor of uncertain origin. The tumor occurres most commonly in the head and neck region of the eldery.

The patient was a 62-year-old female with a reddish nonulcerative movable hard nodule on her left temple area for 2 months. Histopathologically, the tumor cells with large vesicular nuclei and scanty cytoplasm were arranged in trabecular and cord-like pattern in the dermis. The majority of the tumor cells were positive for neuron specific enolase, chromogranin and neurofilament.