Elderly woman diagnosed with rare cutaneous horn

Liang Xiuzhen (Picture: CEN)A woman in China has been diagnosed with a rare medical condition that causes a horn to grow from her head.

Liang Xiuzhen, from Sichuan, South West China, had been puzzled about the growth for the last two years.

The 87-year-old said the mass started as an itchy black mole eight years ago, which she initially treated with a herbal remedy.

But two years ago the mole burst open and a small horn – the size of a little finger – began to grow out of the skin.

Cutaneous horns

It’s described as a growth composed of keratin, which is the same protein as hair and nails.

They usually occur on the face, scalp, neck, forearms and the back of the hands where there’s the most amount of sun exposure.

The horns can be big or small and vary in colour.

Squamous cell carcinoma, a non-melanoma type of cancer, can be associated with cutaneous horns. It is the second most common type of cancer in the UK.

Source: British Skin Foundation, WebMD

The woman’s son Wang Zhaojun told People’s Daily Online: ‘We went to the hospital and the doctors couldn’t diagnose the growth. My mother doesn’t like going to the hospital because she thinks that she won’t be able to come back home if she goes.’

So they ignored it.

That was until Zhaojun accidentally knocked off the horn when washing Xiuzhen’s hair and the growth started growing rapidly.

Within just six months the horn had grown to an enormous five inches in length and two inches in diameter. It also started bleeding in patches.

Talking about the condition Xiuzhen said: ‘At the moment it’s just painful. Sometimes it’s so painful it will wake me up from sleep.’

But now doctors have finally managed to diagnose the rare condition as a cutaneous horn – a growth composed of keratin, the same protein in hair and fingernails.

Now her family hope to not only raise awareness of the condition but also have the growth removed.

Of course that’s only if Xiuzhen can be persuaded to venture inside a hospital.

Metro