Abstract
Carcinosarcoma of the skin (CS) is an extremely rare biphasic neoplasm composed of intimately admixed malignant epithelial and mesenchymal elements. These tumors occur more frequently in the internal organs such as the female and male genital tracts, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, breast, upper and lower urinary system, oronasopharynx, larynx, thyroid, and thymus. Occurrence in the skin is extremely rare. Only about 40 cases have been reported in literature, mostly as single cases or small series. Different theories have been proposed to explain the pathogenesis of CS: a collision tumor of two unrelated tumors, a combination of two divergent cell lines from a single stem cell, and a metaplastic transformation of part of the carcinoma into a sarcoma.
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Caputo, V., Rongioletti, F. (2015). Carcinosarcoma. In: Rare Malignant Skin Tumors. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2023-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2023-5_6
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