title: Low-grade adenocarcinoma of the oral cavity: polymorphous or papillary?
abstract: Polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinomas are low-grade malignant salivary-gland neoplasms with a broad variety of architectural patterns. Whether papillary structures fall within this spectrum or whether they should lead to a diagnosis of papillary low-grade adenocarcinoma is a subject of debate. This problem was investigated by analyzing a series of 22 salivary gland neoplasms. It was concluded that papillary structures form part of the histologic spectrum of polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma but that there are also tumors with papillary structures as a single component. In most instances these are more properly classified as papillary cystadenocarcinomas. As the designation papillary low-grade adenocarcinoma has been used for polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinomas with papillary structures as well as for papillary cystadenocarcinoma, it is advocated that the diagnosis of papillary low-grade adenocarcinoma should be discontinued.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University Hospital, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Slootweg
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology; D000231:Adenocarcinoma, Papillary / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000473:pathology; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009077:Mucins; D011379:Prognosis; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D009077:Mucins