BASAL CELL CARCINOMA OF SWEAT GLAND ORIGIN

Abstract

The concept of adnexal carcinoma of the skin, as developed by Foot,¹ has given an integrated explanation of the basal cell carinoma which accounts for its distribution, its variety of cellular patterns and its infiltrative—but never metastasizing—habits of growth. The origin of basal cell carcinoma from sweat gland ducts has been recorded, but both Foot and Gates, Warren and Warvi² regarded its origin from sweat gland acini as extremely rare, if not actually unknown. The expression "origin (of a neoplasm) from (a tissue or structure) " will bear a little explanation. It is commonplace that malignant neoplasms, like benign ones, may exhibit what has been called "homotypic," as opposed to "heterotypic," structure, that is, they may tend to reproduce a normal pattern. It is then commonly assumed that they have arisen in, or have been derived from, a normal cell (or tissue) exhibiting this same pattern. While this assumption