A sweat-gland tumor metastasizing to the axilla: report of a case

Sclerosing sweat-duct carcinoma is a rare malignancy of the skin. We herein present the case of a 68-year-old Japanese man who developed sclerosing sweat-duct carcinoma 2 years after undergoing local excision of a primary tumor in his right arm. Firm nodules appeared in the right axilla, which were revealed by surgical resection to be metastases. This rare tumor grows slowly but usually metastasizes to the regional lymph nodes, whereupon they are often associated with a poor prognosis. As the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiotherapy against this neoplasm remains unclear, we recommend that the disease should initially be aggressively treated by surgery, which would also be indicated for any metastatic lesions.