Skin metastasis from nasopharyngeal carcinoma in four Chinese patients

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common malignancy among southern Chinese. The tumours are mostly undifferentiated carcinomas and are associated with Epstein-Barr virus. Patients present with a blood-stained postnasal discharge, impaired hearing, tinnitus or cervical lymph node enlargement. Radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy is the standard treatment. Though metastatic lung, bone or liver disease is not uncommon on relapse, skin metastasis is rarely reported. The small number of reports in the literature are either brief or have only a few patients. In this report, we describe our series of four Hong Kong Chinese patients with NPC who had distant cutaneous metastases.