Content area
Full Text
Apocrine carcinoma comprises a group of rare primary cutaneous adenocarcinomas, which show features of apocrine differentiation and most frequently arise in regions of high apocrine gland density-particularly in the axilla. 1, 2 Rarely, they also arise in the Moll's glands of the eyelids. Apocrine neoplasms occasionally cause diagnostic problems clinically and pathologically, because it is difficult to make a pathological distinction between benign and malignant apocrine neoplasms. 3, 4 Most apocrine carcinomas exist for less than one year before diagnosis. In addition, slow growing lesions can be present as painless, solitary, or multiple, solid to cystic masses, ranging in size from 1 to over 5 cm. These lesions tend to vary in colour from red to purple, and show ulceration of the overlying skin. The tumours are initially locally invasive, and systemic dissemination is often associated with regional lymph node metastases. Wide, local excision is the standard treatment for such lesions, and although apocrine carcinoma responds poorly to chemotherapy, adjuvant radiotherapy may be used in cases with advanced local or regional lesions.
"Apocrine carcinoma comprises a group of rare primary cutaneous adenocarcinomas, which show features of apocrine differentiation"
In this report, we review the clinicopathological findings of published cases of apocrine carcinoma with benign apocrine tumours. In addition, we discuss the case of an 89 year old man suffering from apocrine carcinoma with aberrant apocrine hyperplasia independently occurring on the bilateral axillae.
CASE REPORT
In October 2000, an 89 year old man visited our hospital because of a painless tumour of the left axilla, which had slowly enlarged since he first noticed it six months earlier.
Physical examination revealed a slightly soft, dome shaped tumour consisting of two masses; one mass was thumb sized and the other was hen egg sized. It was adherent to the overlying skin with ulceration, and at that time no mass was present in the right axilla. A biopsy specimen revealed skin appendage carcinoma, and an enhanced computed tomography scan of the thorax and abdomen revealed no tumour mass except for the left axillary tumour. The patient underwent radical excision with left axillary lymph node resection in December 2000. Laboratory data at that time-including serum carcinoembryonic antigen, carbohydrate antigen 19-9, and squamous cell carcinoma antigen-were within the normal ranges.
...