[Chondroid syringoma: a clinical and histological review of eight cases]

Abstract

Introduction: Chondroid syringoma is a rare skin tumor that presents as a slow growing, indolent lesion, that is more frequent in male adults and is usually benign. It is treated surgically and its diagnosis is histological. It can be classified as eccrine and apocrine according to its pathological characteristics.

Material and methods: Eight cases diagnosed of chondroid syringoma in our Department in the last eight years were reevaluated clinically and histologically and the epiluminiscence microscopy was used in one of them.

Results: Most of the cases occurred as well-defined nodular lesions, whose presumptive clinical diagnosis was adnexal or cystic pathology. All were treated surgically. The epiluminiscence microscopy showed a pattern of homogenous whitish-blue coloring. All the cases had a myxoid matrix and most also had a chondroid one. Five of the eight cases were apocrine, one of them with follicular and sebaceous differentiation.

Discussion: The chondroid syringoma is usually a small-sized skin tumor, frequently on the head and neck. The dermatoscopy does not seem to supply any specific trait to this lesion. The microscopic examination of these lesions reveals tubuloalveolar and glandular type structures positioned as islets within a fibroadipose, chondroid, myxoid or hyaline stroma. The final treatment of these tumors is surgical. As a general rule, it is a benign tumor. Some authors have proposed the term of atypical mixed tumor of the skin for those chondroid syringomas with histological traits of malignancy but without evidence of metastasis.