Background: Squamous cell carcinoma, a malignant proliferation of keratinocytes, can be found in many regions of the body covered by stratified squamous epithelium and in areas covered by other epithelia but which had undergone squamous metaplasia. Squamous cell carcinoma has many variants.
Methodology: We, retrospectively, reviewed the case file and histological features of a 75 year old trader with a rare variant of squamous cell carcinoma arising from an old surgical scar.
Case report: The 75-year-old African female trader presented to the hospital with three and a-half month history of a swelling in the anterior aspect of the left leg arising from an old surgical scar. Clinical examination showed an irregularly shaped ulcer measuring 14 x 16 cm with an everted edge and a hyperpigmented floor. Histologic sections of the specimen showed the infiltration of the papillary and reticular dermis of the skin by sheets of atypical spindle cells with areas of squamous differentiation. There was a contiguous area of capillary-like structures constituting about 30% of the sections examined. The neoplastic cells were positive for vimentin and cytokeratin but were negative for CD34. The diagnosis was pseudoangiosarcomatous squamous cell carcinoma.
Conclusion: This tumour can be found in Africans and in an old surgical scar. It can coexist with other variants of squamous cell carcinoma. There may be need in the future to add a new mixed variant to the current classification scheme.