Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of Head and Neck

Twenty-two cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma arising in head and neck region were studied. Ten of the patients died as a result of tumor, being the direct cause in nine with distant metastasis and one with local recurrence.Histopathologic features were classified with 3 patterns: cribriform pattern, tubular pattern and solid pattern. In the tumor, these patterns were seen mixed with more than two patterns or singly. The relationship between these histopathologic findings and prognosis was studied. Grade I (cribriform pattern only) was associated with good prognosis and grade III (solid pattern, only or with other patterns) had very poor prognosis. Grade II (tubular pattern, only or with cribriform pattern) with intermediated prognosis between the two grades. Particularly, patients with a solid pattern, if it was only a part of the tumor, had poor prognosis. It is suspected that the solid pattern reflected high malignancy and histopathologic classification of adenoid cystic carcinoma is important for prognostic diagnosis.