Clinicopathological study of 54 cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma in the head and neck

Abstract

A retrospective analysis was performed on 54 patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma in the head and neck, treated from January 1971 to July 1997 in the Kurume University Hospital. The patients consisted of 35 females and 19 males, with a mean age of 59 years. The site of the lesion was the oral cavity in 13, nasal cavity in 11, submandibular gland in 8, parotid gland in 5, paranasal sinus in 3, nasopharynx in 3, oropharynx in 3, external auditory canal in 3, orbita in 2, lip in 1, lacrimal gland in 1 and trachea in 1. The over all 5-year, 10-year and 15-year survival rates as determined by the Kaplan-Meier method were 72%, 53%, and 46%, respectively. There was no relationship between survival rate and the site of the original lesion. According to the histologic criteria reported by Szanto et al., when more than 30% of the neoplasma showed a solid pattern, its treatment outcome appeared poor. In this study, the same tendency was seen. Fifteen patients died of the tumor. Ten died of distant metastasis and 5 died of local recurrence invading the cranium. No patient died of neck metastasis. Adenoid cystic carcinoma was thought to be radioresistant, but recently some authors have reported this tumor as radiosensitive. This study also showed that postoperative radiotherapy was effective, producing an increase in the survival rate.