Poroma is a benign, relatively common skin tumor that has the cellular features similar to those of a sweat gland duct. This tumor typically occurs as a solitary stalkless nodule on the soles and palms but may occur in any area where there are sweat glands. Porocarcinoma (also termed eccrine porocarcinoma and malignant eccrine poroma) is an extremely rare malignant counterpart of poromas. It may arise from a longstanding poroma but more commonly appears to develop independently of any precursor poroma. Porocarcinoma tumors predominantly afflict elderly individuals. A study of 104 poroma tumors detected the YAP1-NUTM1 and WWTR1-NUTM1 fusion genes in 21 cases and 1 case, respectively, while the same study of 11 porocarcinoma tumors detected the YAP1-NUTM1 fusion gene in 6 cases. Expression of the NUTM1 (fusion) protein was observed in 25 poroma and 6 porocarcinoma cases but not in a wide range of other skin tumor types. Studies on cultured immortalized human dermal keratinocyte (i.e. HDK) and mouse embryonic fibroblast NIH-3T3 cell lines found  that the YAP1-NUTM1 and WWTR1-NUTM1 fusion genes stimulated the anchorage-independent growth of NIH-3T3 cells and activated a transcriptional enhancer factor family member (i.e. TEAD family) reporter gene. The TEAD family in mammals includes four members, TEAD1, TEAD2, TEAD3, and TEAD4 that are transcription factors, i.e. proteins that regulate the expression of various genes. TEAD family proteins have been found to promote the development, progression, and/or metastasis of various cancer types and, based on the studies just cited, are thought to do so in poromas and porocarcinomas. However, further studies are needed to confirm this association and determine if TEAD family transcription factors may be useful targets for treating the porocarcinomas.