Primary branchiogenic carcinoma: report of a case and a review of the literature.

Branchiogenic carcinoma, which is squamous cell carcinoma arising in a branchial cyst, is extremely rare and a highly contentious clinicopathologic entity. A 56-year-old male presented with a well-defined, fluctuant, painless mass on the right side of the neck which was excised with a diagnosis of branchial cyst. The pathological diagnosis was branchial cleft squamous cell carcinoma, which was characterized microscopically by a branchial cleft cyst with a tumour and a non-tumour transitional zone. The report highlights the controversy surrounding this entity and establishes the diagnosis based ona set of histopathologic criteria proposed by Martin et al. and later modified by Khafif et al.