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The third recurrence of a primary mucinous adenocarcinoma of the right parietal scalp was studied by histochemistry and electron microscopy. Histochemically the mucin produced by this neoplasm was of the sialomucine type. Electron microscopy revealed a high differentiated tumour whose cells looked like eccrine mucinous ones. The natural history of this carcinoma is similar to that of 33 ones already published. The tumours, round and elevated, grow in 75 p. 100 of the cases in patients over 50 years of age. They are located on the face or the scalp and more rarely on the trunk. Such tumours are frequently misdiagnosed as carcinomas. But the knowledge of thier morphological and histochemical features should lead to the right diagnosis all the more since the various biological and radiological investigations do not discover other primary neoplasm. Besides if these neoplasms are not metastases they are quite different from the other sweat gland carcinomas. They have a better prognosis than these tumours. However they give local recurrences, lymph node or subcutaneous metastases and a fatal issue in 6 p. 100 of the cases.

Malignant haemangioendothelioma of the scalp of the elderly (MHS) is a relatively rate entity. A new case of this uncommon condition, which was subjected to an ultrastructural and immunohistological study, is reported herein.

We report a case (the second from France) of histiocytoid haemangioma, an entity created by Rosai et al. (14) in 1979 to accommodate several cutaneous and extra-cutaneous diseases hitherto known under other names and characterized histologically by the proliferation of vessels with peculiar "histiocytoid" endothelial cells. Our patient was a 56-year old woman who developed, within a few weeks, a slightly haemorrhagic nodule of the scalp. The histological examination, performed in a private laboratory, led to a diagnosis of cavernous angioma or angioleiomyoma. Two months after the lesion was removed, the condition recurred in the form of about 10 sessile subcutaneous nodules, 3 to 20 mm in diameter; the nodules were firm, painless, little pruriginous and sometimes ulcerated. An old-standing lymph node enlargement was palpable on the right side of the posterior aspect of the neck. The rest of the scalp was normal. Physical examination of the skin and mucosae revealed no other abnormality. These alarming lesions were suggestive of metastasis or angiosarcoma. X-ray films of the skull were normal, as were the results of blood examination; in particular, there was no eosinophilia. Histology showed a papillomatous epidermis, while the superficial and mid dermis were occupied by a lobulated vascular proliferation. The vessels were of the capillary type; they were lined with two or three layers of endothelial cells remarkable for their large indented nucleus and for their abundant eosinophilic cytoplasm bulging out into the lumen. These vessels were surrounded by fairly dense nodular masses of small lymphocytes with a few histiocytes and some neutrophils. There were no lymphoid follicles.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)