Calcifying epithelioma of Malherbe is considered to be a rare tumor that was ascribed to the 1880 work of Malherbe. Although there are some reviews, single case reports are striking. Accordingly, this paper contributes 12 cases examined by the author in a developing community. The results are deemed to be worthy of documentation including the rare occurrence in the finger.

Keywords: Calcification, Epithelioma, Finger, Developing community

A group of Indian researchers contributed a case report involving a 15 year old female and mentioned that the first description was by Malherbe and Chenantais in 1880 [1]. Single reports have appeared recently in countries as disparate as Brazil [2], India [3] and Japan [4] as well as from another community in Nigeria [5]. Also, there are reviews from Brazil [6], China [7], Japan [8] and the UK [9]. Therefore, this paper presents 12 cases from among the Ibo ethnic group [10], which is a developing community domiciled mostly in South Eastern Nigeria. Moreover, in keeping with the experience of Birmingham (UK) authors [11], the establishment of a histopathology data pool facilitates epidemiological analysis. Fortunately, as the pioneer pathologist, who headed such a Regional Laboratory from 1970, copies of all reports were kept personally. The results of typical cases of this epithelioma can be presented in Tabular Form.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Incidentally, John Swales, the Editor of English for Specific Purposes [12], considered that, concerning the reprint request (RR), the author is “the only active researcher that I have traced in the RR area”. In this context, I have two reprints of the 1970s vintage from USA [13,14]. The respective data were according to sites, ages and measurements as follows: (i) eyelid, 2½ years and 3 cm and (ii) preauricular, 21 years and 8 cm.

The comparative solitary recent data may be itemized as follows:

(i)       chest, 15 years and cherry size [1],

(ii)     breast, 47 years and 2 cm [2],

(iii)    brow, 25 years and 8 cm [3],

(iv)   preauricle, 42 years and 10 mm [4].

Of the review articles, the data varied curiously. Thus, from Brazil [6], there were 31 males and 25 females with lesions distributed in the face (42.4%), upper limbs (19.7%), trunk (13.6%), lower limbs (12.1%), neck (9.1%) and scalp (3.1%). From China [7] there were 58 patients with mean age of 26 years (range, 5-69) years and female-to-male ratio of 1.2, while most were located in the head and neck with mean tumor size of 13 mm. As to the Japanese cases [8], 37 patients showed mean age of 32 years, female:male ratio of 2.4:1 with the most common site was the pre-auricular region. Clearly, a distinct world pattern was not deducible.

The local cohort is probably illuminative. Certainly, nowhere else was the finger specifically mentioned. Incidentally, while the head topped the sites with 4 cases, the neck was not affected. Most lesions were small, measuring but 3 cm across as in the USA 1976 case [14] (Table 1).

CONCLUSION

This survey shows variations in epidemiological presentations. Perhaps, the only striking variation was the local appearance of this odd lesion in the finger. Incidentally, no local doctor provisionally diagnosed this rare epithelioma correctly.

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