[Cutaneous spreading of a chordoma].

INTRODUCTION

Chordomas are rare extradural bone tumors arising from notochord remnants, the embryonic structure forming the original axis of the spine. They represent 0.1p. 100 of all intra-cranial tumors. The chordoma is a locally malignant cancer that tends to invade the surrounding tissues. Its localization in the skin is exceptional.

OBSERVATION

A 56 year-old man developed a nut-sized vegetating nodule on the nasal groove. This lesion appeared a few months following surgery for a frontoglabellar relapse of a chordoma that had developed six years earlier at the base of the skull.

DISCUSSION

We report this case because of the rareness of cutaneous involvement and the particular conditions in which it occurred. It may have been due to tumoral seeding during the previous surgical interventions.