Basal cell carcinoma with lung metastasis

A forty-seven year-old man had a small ulceration on his left cheek. The ulcer had a repeated crust formation following removal, for ten years. The patient found a hard tumor in the deep site of the ulcer and the tumor was resected. The pathological diagnosis was basal cell carcinoma. The metastases to the regional lymph nodes developed one year later and these lymph nodes were resected. The histological picture was the same as seen in the primary tumor. Lung metastasis occurred three years later. The tumor was resected and the pathological diagnosis was basal cell carcinoma. Multiple lung metastases developed one year later and massive hemoptysis led to a sudden death two years after the thoracotomy. Thirty-seven cases of basal cell carcinoma with lung metastases were reported in the literature. This case is the thirty-eighth case and the third occurrence in a Japanese.