2023 Volume 36 Issue 1 Pages 108-115
Minor salivary glands are widely distributed on the lips, tongue, buccal mucosa, hard palate, etc. It has been reported that minor salivary gland tumors account for about 10-15％ of all salivary gland tumors, and that about 50％ of them are malignant, which is a higher proportion than for major salivary gland tumors.
Cribriform adenocarcinoma of minor salivary glands （CASG） is a very rare type of salivary gland carcinoma. Although CASG is considered to be a variant of polymorphous adenocarcinoma （PAC） under the World Health Organization classification, it is controversial whether CASG and PAC should be considered within the same classification because of the differences between their histopathological and genetic features.
A 63-year-old man visited us complaining of swelling of the left mandible for 2-3 months, and a hard tumor was palpable not only on the left side of the neck but also in the left tongue base. MRI showed a lobular and capsulated neoplastic lesion about 50 mm in size on the left side of the base of the tongue, and some left cervical lymph nodes were swollen. Biopsy of the base of the tongue tumor revealed only normal mucosa, but fine needle aspiration cytology for cervical tumors found suspected adenocarcinoma. We performed surgical excision of the tumors. From the clinical characteristics, findings typical of CASG were observed, but the histopathological characteristics of PAC and CASG were mixed. Genetic analysis was not performed for this patient. There have been no signs of recurrence during observation for three years and one month after the operation.
We have previously experienced cases in which the characteristics of PAC and CASG were mixed. To determine whether PAC and CASG should be treated as different diseases, it is important to carry out further studies in the future.
