Rippled pattern extraocular sebaceous carcinoma: a rare case report with brief review of literature

Sebaceous carcinoma (SC) is a highly aggressive malignant adnexal tumor of sebaceous gland origin, accounting for less than 1% of cutaneous. Extraocular sebaceous carcinomas are more aggressive than their ocular counterpart with a predilection for the skin of head and neck, trunk, salivary glands and extremities in decreasing order of frequency. Rippled effect literally means "gradually spreading effect". In histopathology it describes the unique arrangement of tumor cells in palisading pattern. The tumors in which rippled effect has been reported include adnexal tumors like trichoblastoma, trichomatricoma, trichoblastoma with sebaceous differentiation, trichoblastoma with apocrine differentiation, sebaceoma, basal cell carcinoma, fibrohistiocytic tumors, mesenchymal tumors and melanocytic tumors. We report the first case of extra ocular sebaceous carcinoma with rippled effect with emphasis on the fact that differentiation from other tumors demonstrating rippled effect is important in view of different treatment protocols.