Spinal cord compression caused by adjacent adenocystic carcinoma of the skin

Adenocystic carcinomas are malignant tumours that arise from the major accessory salivary glands. Cutaneous involvement can result from direct extension from a salivary gland neoplasm. Cutaneous adenocystic carcinomas remote from adjacent salivary tissue are rare. We present the case of an elderly patient with primary cutaneous adenoid cystic carcinoma causing spinal cord compression at the L1-L2 level. The patient was operated on and the tumour totally removed. No similar cases have been found in our review of the literature.