Misdiagnosis of subungual squamous cell carcinoma:A report of two cases
YAN Ruotian
HU Honghua
ZHU Chengyao
Abstract：We report two cases of misdiagnosed subungual squamous cell carcinoma(SSCC).Case 1:A 50-year-old man presented with recurrent swelling and purulent discharge under the left middle fingernail for two years.The patient had been diagnosed with paronychia and pyogenic granuloma.Dermatological examination revealed a red,nodular,granulomatous lesion under the left middle fingernail,approximately 0.5 cm×0.3 cm×0.3 cm in size,with well-defined bor-ders.A partial nail unit excision was performed,and postoperative histopathology showed multiple tumor cell clusters in the dermis that were connected to the epidermis,accompanied by the forma-tion of squamous eddies and horn pearls.The tumor cells exhibited marked atypia and disordered arrangement.The diagnosis was subungual squamous cell carcinoma.Case 2:A 66-year-old woman presented with a painful subungual nodule on the left index finger for several months.She had been diagnosed with verruca vulgaris and subungual fibroma.Dermatological examination showed a red,soybean-sized nodule under the left index fingernail that protruded from the nail plate and the fingertip,with a rough and crusted surface.A partial nail unit excision was per-formed,and postoperative histopathology showed atypical tumor cell clusters connected to the epi-dermis,with the presence of mitosis and dyskeratosis.Postoperative diagnosis:Subungual squa-mous cell carcinoma.Both patients have been followed up after surgical excision and have not shown any signs of recurrence to date.
Keywords：squamous cell carcinomasubungualmisdiagnosis
Publication Date：2026-01-28
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-11(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 53-57 )