A skin tumor as a marker for a hereditary cancer syndrome: Muir-Torre syndrome

Abstract  If after excision of a skin tumor, the diagnosis of the pathologist is an epithelioma, adenoma, or carcinoma of sebaceous origin, one should be alert for Muir-Torre syndrome (MTS). In its simplest description, this syndrome is the association of sebaceous gland neoplasm with internal malignancy in the same patient. The sebaceous gland tumor may precede, appear concurrently, or follow the diagnosis of the patients internal malignancy. The sebaceous tumor occurs prior to or concurrent with an internal malignancy in 44% to 63% of the MTS patients [3, 7]. The sebaceous skin tumor can therefore be used as a marker for internal malignancies. This fact is important because internal malignancies in MTS tend to be less aggressive compared to sporadic malignancies. This article describes the incidence of MTS in a cohort of patients diagnosed as suffering from a sebaceous gland neoplasm, who visited our Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, in collaboration with the Department of Dermatology.