Abstract
ObjectivesAs tumour spread is a complicating event for malignant salivary gland tumours, we decided to study factors related to cell adhesion and lymph vessel formation in two of the three most common malignant salivary gland tumours, mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) and adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), to clarify the clinical relevance and potential usefulness of these factors. We also included a group of polymorphous adenocarcinoma (PAC) as this tumour, in common with ACC often shows perineural growth, but in contrast to ACC has an overall good prognosis.Material and methodsEighteen patients with ACC, 15 with MEC, and six with PAC were included. Protein expression of podoplanin and E‐cadherin was evaluated as percentage of cells expressing the protein and intensity of expression. Ki‐67 expression was included in the study as a marker of proliferative activity.ResultsLooking at podoplanin, significantly more ACCs were high expressing compared with both MECs (P = .001) and PACs (P = .028). Also when looking at Ki‐67 expression, significantly more ACCs were high expressing compared with MECs (P = .003). Significantly better survival was also seen for ACCs with high podoplanin (P = .022) and low E‐cadherin expression (P = .021), respectively.ConclusionsOur findings show that ACCs express significantly higher levels of podoplanin compared with both MECs and PACs and that high levels are correlated to better survival. Even though the group of PACs analysed was small, these tumours, despite their tendency to perineural spread, which they have in common with ACC, differ from ACCs concerning expression of factors with a known connection to tumour spread.
Highlights
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) together with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and acinic cell carcinoma comprise the three most frequent malignant salivary gland tumours found (Neville, Damm, Allen, & Chi, 2016)
As tumour spread is a complicating event for all tumour types, we decided to study factors related to cell adhesion and lymph vessel formation in these three common malignant salivary gland tumours to clarify the clinical relevance and potential usefulness of these factors
For Ki‐67, no tumour was higher than Class 3 according to Detre, and tumours were divided into two groups where Group 1 = Classes 1 and 2 according to Detre (1–19%) and Group 2 = Class 3 according to Detre (20–39%)
Summary
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) together with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and acinic cell carcinoma comprise the three most frequent malignant salivary gland tumours found (Neville, Damm, Allen, & Chi, 2016). Of these three tumour types, MEC is the most common salivary gland tumour in patients younger than 20 years. Depending on the amount of different cells, malignancy grading can be done and has shown clinical relevance (Bai et al, 2013). A difference in frequency has been shown between the United States and Great Britain, indicating a geographic variation (Neville et al, 2016)
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