Eyelid basal cell carcinoma with intracranial extension

We describe a case of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) situated on the external upper margin of the right eyelid in a young man aged 28 years. The tumor was diagnosed as an "extended wart in a degenerative phase" and removed during reconstructive plastic surgery. No pathologic examination was performed. Seven years later, the operation was followed by a first recurrence. Pathologic examination was then performed, and the diagnosis was BCC. Therapy was with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Subsequent recurrences were treated with radiotherapy and surgery (enucleation, exenteration of the orbit), but the evolution of the tumor was not halted. It ended 25 years after its first manifestation with the death of the patient of a hemorrhage of the upper airways during an operation, the aim of which was to reexamine the orbital cavity. The autopsy revealed intracranial extension of the tumor, and all the histological examinations confirmed the diagnosis. No histopathological feature was found that could differentiate a particularly aggressive nature of the tumor. Basal cell carcinoma is a tumor more frequently encountered in elderly patients. Its appearance in a young subject may cause grounds for suspicion, requiring initial radical surgical treatment and careful surveillance of the evolution of the lesion. This case documents the fatal consequences that may arise from the failure to recognize BCC in its first manifestation and highlights the ineffectiveness of repeated radiation and surgical therapy against continual recurrence.