scrotal cancer, an epidermoid malignancy of the scrotum, characterized initially by a small sore that may ulcerate. The lesion occurs most frequently in elderly men who have been exposed to soot, pitch, crude oil, mineral oils, polycyclic hydrocarbons, or arsenic fumes from copper smelting. Treatment involves wide surgical excision of the tumor and resection of inguinal nodes. In the 18th century Sir Percival Pott associated scrotal cancer in chimney sweeps with exposure to soot. It was the first malignancy shown to be caused by an environmental carcinogen. Also called chimney-sweeps’ cancer, soot wart.
