A rare cutaneous tumor of the axilla: Apocrine adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Sweat gland neoplasms are rare with approximately 200 cases of eccrine sweat gland and less than 50 cases of apocrine gland carcinoma being reported in the worldwide literature. More than half of the reported cases with apocrine adenocarcinoma had lymph node metastases at the time of diagnosis. We report a case of a 56-year-old man, presented with a left axillary slow-growing seven year old painless nodule. Histopathological examination revealed an invasive apocrine adenocarcinoma with lymph node metastases. The patient successfully treated with total excision and radiotherapy. Apocrine adenocarcinoma is a rare malignancy with high metastatic potential that occurs mostly in the axilla. Physicians should be aware of this entity while differentiating cutaneous tumor located on the axillary region.

Keywords

• <i>Apocrine carcinoma
• axillary nodule
• eccrine sweat gland tumor
• radiotherapy</i>