Basal cell carcinoma developing from trichoepithelioma: Review of three cases

Abstract

Trichoepitheliomas (TE) are benign tumours but occasionally can undergo transformation to malignant neoplasms more commonly as Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC). The correct diagnosis between these tumours is very important because basal cell carcinoma is locally aggressive neoplasm and requires total surgical excision with wide healthy margins while trichoepithelioma needs simple excision. We describe three patients who developed basal cell carcinoma with facial trichoepitheliomas. The only clinical feature that distinguished the carcinomas from the trichoepitheliomas was their larger size, in all three patients, one patient with recurrent, hyper pigmented swelling with surface ulceration and in another patient there are multiple trichoepitheliomas, and other family members are also affected. The history, clinical features and histopathological findings were suggestive of the evolution of basal cell carcinoma directly from trichoepithelioma in our first two cases, but in the third case TE and BCC were separate lesions on face and we are uncertain about whether the BCC developed independently or by transformation from a trichoepithelioma. Based on our clinicopathological observations in the three patients and reports in the recent literature, BCC with follicular differentiation and trichoepithelioma are considered to be highly related.