Skin appendageal tumors: A three-year dermatopathologic institutional study in Martin, Slovakia

Abstract

Background. Skin appendageal tumors (SATs) comprise a wide and diverse variety of neoplasms that exhibit histogenetic differentiation towards one or more of the cutaneous adnexal structures. Objective. The goal of this research was to study an incidence and clinicopathological profile of patients with biopsy-confirmed SATs received at a single pathology institute over a 3-year period. Material and Methods. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted at the Martin Biopsy Center in Martin from August 2019 to July 2022. A retrospective review of all consecutive primary tumors of the skin that were histologically diagnosed during the study period was performed. The SATs have been extracted from that file and analyzed in details. Results. A total of 80 cases of SATs have been identified in a set of over 10,000 various skin tumors. They were obtained from 80 individuals (40 males, 40 females) in the age range of 10 to 89 years (mean 54.1 y.). The most common site affected was the head and neck (55/80; 68.75%), followed by limbs (15/80; 18.75%) and trunk (10/80; 12.5%). The majority (60%; 48/80) of SATs were of hair follicle origin, followed by sweat gland tumors (37.5%;  30/80). The tumors derived from sebaceous glands accounted for only two cases (2.5%). All but one case comprised benign lesions. The most common types were trichoepithelioma, pilomatrixoma, poroma and hidrocystoma. The only case of malignancy (1.2%) was hidradenocarcinoma. Conclusion. SATs represent less than 1% of all cutaneous neoplasms. Compared to global literature data we have observed a higher age of patients, a very low incidence of sebaceous tumors, and a minimum proportion of malignant lesions. The discrepancies regarding the clinicopathologic features of SATs found in many published studies are partly due to inconsistent approach to the classification of this peculiar tumor group.