Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma: A blessing in disguise

Adenoid cystic carcinoma has been reported in the literature to occur between 1-4.5% among the head and neck neoplasms and up to 50% in minor salivary glands as compared to the major salivary glands. The neoplasms occurring in the minor salivary glands have poor prognosis as compared to those occurring in the major salivary glands. Apparently when the diagnostic introspection occurs in differentiating the adenoid cystic carcinoma from other commonly occurring tumors in the minor and major salivary glands such as pleomorphic adenoma, canalicular adenoma, muco-epidermoid carcinoma, adeno carcinoma, necrotizing sialometaplasia etc., the Immuno histo chemistry helps as a main tool in diagnosing the adenoid cystic carcinoma to that of other entities including its sub-types, when the histo pathological diagnosis is in contemplation, particularly when the perineural spread /invasion cannot be appreciated with regards to minor salivary glands in certain instances. This presentation emphasizes the correlation of histopathology findings with that of Immuno histo chemistry for confirmatory diagnosis, particularly due to its rarity of occurrence in sub-sites of head and neck such as oral cavity, soft palate, hard palate, posterior pharyngeal wall, maxillary sinus and paranasal sinus region etc. A congregation of 11 cases is presented here with in this regard.

Author(s): Sudhakar V.S. Goparaju

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