The objectives of this paper are to report a case of apocrine
carcinoma and the discussion of aspects related to its diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.
Carcinomas with apocrine differentiation not related to
extramammary Paget's disease, ductal
breast carcinoma, Moll's glands
adenocarcinoma and ceruminous glands
carcinoma are very uncommon
tumors. We report a case of a 51-year-old black woman who developed apocrine
carcinoma lesions in the head and neck region. Two lesions involved her left parotid gland (first
tumor and local recurrence), and other involved her submandibular skin. The microscopic aspects were as follows: infiltrative
glandular epithelial neoplasm with moderate cellular and nuclear pleomorphism; neoplasic cells with polygonal or circular shape, large nuclei and eosinophilic and granular cytoplasm. The apical
decapitation secretion was viewed in a large number of intra-cystic
tumor cells. Moreover, we found areas with comedo-
necrosis or PAS positive staining (with or without
diastase). Based on cutaneous apocrine
carcinoma compatibility of the microscopic aspects, we concluded that the
tumor in the submandibular skin was probably the primary
neoplasm. The patient was treated by surgical excisions, and no evidence of recurrent or metastatic disease has been seen after a follow-up period of 12 months.