Cutaneous metastasis of a pulmonary carcinoid tumor

Carcinoid tumors are uncommon neoplasms of neuroendocrine origin that generally arise in the gastrointestinal or bronchopulmonary tracts and typically are characterized by an indolent clinical course. Metastases from these primary neoplasms more commonly affect the viscera, with rare reports of cutaneous metastases to the skin. We report the case of a patient with a cutaneous carcinoid metastasis that was incidentally brought to our attention because of the exquisite tenderness of the lesion. A brief review of the literature also is provided.