Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Case Study
  • Published:

Locally recurrent and metastatic apocrine-gland carcinoma in an elderly man

Abstract

Background A 78-year-old man with a history of untreated hypertension and dementia presented with a rapidly growing, painful mass in the left axilla. He was a nonsmoker and did not consume alcohol. There was no family history of malignancy. The patient had not experienced any constitutional symptoms, such as fever, weight loss, night sweats, or loss of appetite.

Investigations Physical examination, blood tests, excisional biopsy, studies of tumor morphology and immunohistochemistry, CT of the chest and abdomen, and PET scan.

Diagnosis Carcinoma of the axillary apocrine gland.

Management Surgical excision, and radiation therapy.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The patient's left axillary mass
Figure 2: PET scan of the patient showing (18F)-fluorodeoxyglucose activity in both axillae, the left chest wall, the mediastinum, the right hilum, and bilateral lung fields

References

  1. Jacobson YG et al. (1959) Metastasizing sweat gland carcinoma: notes on surgical therapy. Arch Surg 784: 574–581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Cooper PH (1987) Carcinoma of sweat glands. Pathol Annu 22: 83–124

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Brichkov I et al. (2004) Sweat gland carcinoma. Am Surg 70: 63–66

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Warkel RL et al. (1978) Apocrine gland adenoma and adenocarcinoma of the axilla. Arch Dermatol 114: 198–203

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Chintamani et al. (2003) Metastatic sweat gland adenocarcinoma: a clinico-pathological dilemma. World J Surg Oncol 1: 13

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Zehr KJ et al. (1997) Apocrine adenocarcinoma presenting as a large ulcerated axillary mass. Dermatol Surg 23: 585–587

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Paties C et al. (1993) Apocrine carcinoma of the skin. Cancer 71: 375–381

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Brenn T et al. (2005) Tumors of the sweat glands. In Pathology of the Skin, edn 3 (vol 2) 1599–1601 (Eds McKee PH et al.) Philadelphia: Elsevier (Mosby)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Chamberlain RS et al. (1999) Apocrine gland carcinoma of the axilla: review of the literature and recommendations for treatment. Am J Clin Oncol 22: 131–135

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Morabito A et al. (2000) Clinical management of a case of recurrent apocrine gland carcinoma of the scalp: efficacy of a chemotherapy schedule with methotrexate and bleomycin. Tumori 86: 472–474

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bellman B et al. (1995) Sweat gland carcinoma with metastasis to skin: response to 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy. Cutis 55: 221–224

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Mezger J et al. (1986) Treatment of metastatic sweat gland carcinoma by a four drug combination chemotherapy: response in two cases. Med Oncol Tumor Pharmacother 3: 29–34

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michal G Rose.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Roy, S., Shafi, N. & Rose, M. Locally recurrent and metastatic apocrine-gland carcinoma in an elderly man. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 4, 56–59 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0694

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncponc0694

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing