Sebaceous carcinoma and sweat gland carcinoma (malignant tumors with apocrine and eccrine differentiation) are rare malignant skin adnexal tumors that differentiate toward sebaceous gland and eccrine and apocrine glands, respectively. Owing to the rarity of these carcinomas, standard treatments for advanced disease have not been established. Because the prognosis of patients with systemic metastasis is poor, a new treatment for these diseases is eagerly desired. Trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2) and sacituzumab govitecan, an antibody-drug conjugate of TROP2, have attracted attention in the treatment of various solid tumors. In the current study, we immunohistochemically investigated TROP2 expression in 14 sebaceous carcinoma and 18 sweat gland carcinoma samples and found strong and relatively homogeneous TROP2 staining in both cancer types. The mean Histoscore, a semi-quantitative scoring ranging from 0 (negative) to 300, was 265.5 in sebaceous carcinoma and 260.0 in sweat gland carcinoma. These observations directly suggest that both sebaceous carcinoma and sweat gland carcinoma could be potentially treated with TROP2-targeted antibody-drug conjugates such as sacituzumab govitecan.
Keywords: adnexal carcinoma; appendageal tumor; malignant tumors of apocrine and eccrine differentiation; nectin cell adhesion molecule 4 (NECTIN4); sacituzumab govitecan; sebaceous carcinoma; skin cancer; sweat gland carcinoma; targeted therapy; trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2).