The cutaneous pathology of facial lesions in Cowden's disease

A study of 11 facial lesions from 7 patients with Cowden's disease indicated that most belong to a spectrum of related follicular malformations. The most distinctive lesions included multiple facial trichilemmomas, which were frequently cylindrical, resembling a blown-up hair follicle, but could be lobular. Four of the 5 trichilemmomal lesions were from the centrofacial area. Three periauricular lesions showed the pattern of tumor of follicular infundibulum without trichilemmonal features. Two lesions were epidermal without a follicular component and resembled digitate warts. No evidence of virus infection was found using an antiserum to papilloma virus.