Malignant skin tumors of neural crest origin.

In a series of 90,000 consecutive surgical biopsies, ten malignant skin tumors were found that revealed at least two of three tissue components known to be derivatives of the neural crest, namely melanotic cells, neuroid structures, and chondrified tissue. The material studied supports a hypothesis presented earlier, that in spite of their morphologic variegation, such tumors from an entity defined by their common origin, the neural crest.