Sweat gland carcinoma with metastases.

Sweat gland carcinomas with distant metastases have been infrequently recorded in the literature, the first case being reported by Hedinger 1 in 1911. Most of these tumors have originated in areas where the apocrine sweat glands are located. Primary tumors of the hand are also uncommon; of 750,827 patients seen at the Henry Ford Hospital and Clinics the incidence of primary hand tumors was 0.008%. 2 While Schreiner and Wehr 3 found an incidence of 1.1% in their series, no sweat gland tumors were present in either series. The rare combination of a sweat gland carcinoma located in a nonapocrine sweat gland—containing area, a finger, associated with distant metastases justifies this report. Gates and co-workers 4 reviewed the world literature from 1865, when the first case of sweat gland carcinoma was recorded, to 1939. They found 29 cases of sweat gland carcinoma, but in only four instances had metastases occurred.