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When a Lipoma Wasn’t a Lipoma: A Discussion About Granular Cell Tumors of Skin

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Clinical Cases in Skin Cancer Surgery and Treatment

Abstract

Granular Cell Tumors, first described by Abrikossoff on the tongue in 1926, are known to occur in skin, connective tissue, breasts, gastro-intestinal and genital tracts – with the head and neck being the commonest region and the tongue the commonest site [1]. They are very rare tumors, and some authors have suggested that they make up around 0.5 % of all soft tissue tumors [2]. Frequent locations are the tongue (40 %), breast (15 %), respiratory tract (10 %), and esophagus (2 %) [3]. The tumour can often be multicentric (5–14 % of cases) [3]. These tumors have a higher incidence amongst women and a greater prevalence amongst black people. There has also been a case report of a mother and son – both of whom presented in childhood with multiple granular cell tumors [4].

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Correspondence to Sharad P. Paul MD, MPhil .

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Paul, S.P., Osipov, V. (2016). When a Lipoma Wasn’t a Lipoma: A Discussion About Granular Cell Tumors of Skin. In: Paul, S., Norman, R. (eds) Clinical Cases in Skin Cancer Surgery and Treatment. Clinical Cases in Dermatology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20937-1_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20937-1_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20936-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20937-1

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