Sarcoidosis simulating metastasis in patient with Merkel cell carcinoma

Abstract

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin neuroendocrine tumor whose etiology remains little known. The immune system dysfunction is considered one of the possible causes, shared with other diseases, like sarcoidosis. This article presents the case of a male patient, in the seventh decade of life, which had a prior MCC diagnosis and was subsequently diagnosed with sarcoidosis, which radiologically simulated lung and mediastinum metastasis. The association between MCC and sarcoidosis is infrequent and rarely described in literature, found in only two case reports.

Keywords

• carcinoma de célula Merkel
• sarcoidose
• sistema imune