Abstract
PurposeAdenocarcinoma of the salivary glands is of low incidence and a broad range of histopathological subtypes. Cancer stem cell markers (CSC) might serve as novel prognostic parameters. To date, only a few studies examined the expression of CSC in adenocarcinoma of the salivary glands with diverging results. To further investigate the reliability in terms of prognostic value, a histopathological analysis of CSCs on a cohort of patients with adenocarcinomas of the major salivary glands was performed.MethodsTumor samples of 40 consecutive patients with adenocarcinoma of the major salivary gland treated with curative intend at one tertiary center were stained with the CSCs ALDH1, BMI-1, CD44, Nanog, and SOX2. Expression of these markers was correlated with clinicopathological parameters and survival estimates.ResultsCorrelation of high expression of ALDH1 with higher grading (p < 0.001) and high expression of CD44 with the localization of the neoplasm (p = 0.05), larger tumor size (p = 0.006), positive pN-category (p = 0.023), and advanced UICC stage (p = 0.002) was found. Furthermore, high expression of SOX2 correlated with a negative perineural invasion (p = 0.02). No significant correlation of any investigated marker with survival estimates was observed.ConclusionIn conclusion, our study did not find a significant correlation of the investigated CSCs with survival estimates in adenocarcinoma of the major salivary glands. Recapitulating the results of our study in conjunction with data in the literature, the CSCs ALDH1, BMI-1, CD44, Nanog, and SOX2 do not seem to serve as reliable prognostic parameters in the treatment of adenocarcinoma of the salivary glands.
Highlights
Malignoma of the salivary glands exhibits a low incidence of 2.5–3.0 cases per 100,000 people per year [1]
Different histopathological subtypes were summarized as adenocarcinomas and are depicted in Fig. 1b. 50% (n = 20) were staged a T1-2 tumour, and 52.5% (n = 21) did not exhibit a locoregional metastasis at the time of diagnosis. 52.5% (n = 21) had a G2-graded adenocarcinoma, and in 90% (n = 36) of the patients a R0-resection was reached
The current study found no significant differences in survival-rates with regard to the investigated Cancer stem cell markers (CSC) BMI-1, CD44, ALDH-1, Nanog, and SOX2
Summary
Malignoma of the salivary glands exhibits a low incidence of 2.5–3.0 cases per 100,000 people per year [1]. Together with a broad range of more than 20 histological subtypes, and different localization, the investigation of this disease. Clinical parameters like histopathological entity, grading, tumour size, and perineural invasion have proven helpful to estimate prognosis in malignoma of the salivary glands [4]. In cases of recurrence or inoperability, treatment options are limited and mostly chemotherapy in terms of a palliative care setting remain [5]. With a disease so rare combined with a possibly poor prognosis, further investigations about the pathogenesis of those tumour entities is required to improve treatment concepts
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