RECURRENT MALIGNANT APOCRINE SWEAT GLAND CARCINOMA - A CASE REPORT

Abstract

Apocrine carcinomas arise from normal or modified sweat glands. The slow-growing nature and rarity of sweat gland carcinomas complicate their diagnosis at the early stage. The incidence of PASGC is quite low at 0.0049–0.0173 cases/100,000 persons/year. A 21-year-old male patient was presented in February 2016 with small solitary mass in the right axilla with mild tenderness and pain. Underwent wide local excision and axillary dissection at our institution followed by adjuvant radio and chemotherapy. Later on, after 18 months developed local recurrence and was planned for re-surgery and a second phase of palliative radiotherapy. After a year, presented to the hospital with pin sized irregular swelling in the axilla. Sweat gland carcinomas which are rarely diagnosed create a pathological dilemma due to their unpredicted biological behavior. However, wide local excision with or without nodal dissection is the primary treatment till date. In this particular case even though patient had underwent axillary node dissection, patient had recurrence twice with no distant metastasis which is a key point to be noted. Thorough study of the available apocrine carcinoma case reports or case series, the better knowledge regarding the apocrine carcinoma can be obtained.