Tubular Apocrine Adenoma

Abstract

To the Editor.— Sweat gland tumors are perplexing problems in diagnosis and classification, partly because major varieties often show considerable minor variation in morphology. The unnecessary proliferation of diagnostic terminology for sweat gland adenomas based on such minor variations further complicates the matter. I believe that the recently described by Drs. Landry and Winkelmann as a tubular apocrine adenoma 1 was simply a minor variant of syringocystadenoma papilliferum. Helwig and Hackney 2 reported 100 cases of syringocystadenoma papilliferum from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. There are many resemblances between the tubular apocrine adenoma and the cases described earlier. First, 55 of the 100 cases of syringocystadenoma papilliferum Helwig and Hackney reported were located on the head as was the case of tubular apocrine adenoma. Second, one third of their cases were situated in organoid nevi, as was apparently the case in the patient with tubular apocrine adenoma. Third,