Department of Dermatology, Gunma University Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan.
J Dermatol. 2013 Aug;40(8):661-3. doi: 10.1111/1346-8138.12188. Epub 2013 May 19.
We previously reported a case of giant basal cell carcinoma (BCC) in a 75-year-old Japanese man, who subsequently developed a pulmonary metastasis. With regard to the pathogenesis of metastasis of BCC, recently, it has been reported that high levels of expression of Twist1 and N-cadherin in primary and metastatic tumor cells, suggesting that Twist1 expression and an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumor cells are important for the promotion of tumor invasion and subsequent metastasis. In this report, we identified the expressions of Twist1 in tumor cells and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in stromal cells in the primary and metastatic sites of giant BCC. These results suggest that Twist1-induced EMT of tumor cells might have been associated with distant organ metastasis in our case, and the presence of α-SMA-positive myofibroblasts surrounding a BCC nest can be one of hallmarks of the aggressiveness of BCC.
我们之前报道了一例 75 岁日本男性的巨大基底细胞癌（BCC）病例，随后该患者发生了肺部转移。关于 BCC 转移的发病机制，最近有报道称，原发性和转移性肿瘤细胞中 Twist1 和 N-钙黏蛋白的高表达表明 Twist1 表达和肿瘤细胞的上皮-间充质转化（EMT）对于促进肿瘤侵袭和随后的转移很重要。在本报告中，我们鉴定了巨大 BCC 的原发性和转移性部位的肿瘤细胞中的 Twist1 表达和基质细胞中的α-平滑肌肌动蛋白（α-SMA）表达。这些结果表明，在我们的病例中，Twist1 诱导的肿瘤细胞 EMT 可能与远处器官转移有关，并且围绕 BCC 巢存在的α-SMA 阳性肌纤维母细胞可能是 BCC 侵袭性的标志之一。
