The buccal minor salivary glands as starting point for a metastasizing adenocarcinoma--report of a case.
BACKGROUND
With the 2005 WHO classification of salivary gland tumours and its increasingly recognized diagnostic entities, the frequency of adenocarcinoma (NOS) has decreased significantly.


METHODS
This paper describes a fast growing adenocarcinoma (NOS), originating from the minor salivary glands of the left buccal mucosa with a rapid onset of multiple local and distant metastases, especially in the lung. A lung primary was unlikely as the tumour was characterized by positivity for cytokeratin 20 and negativity for the thyroid transcription factor-1 protein (TTF-1) in immunohistochemistry.


CONCLUSIONS
A rare case of an adenocarcinoma (NOS) of the minor salivary glands with a rapid development and an unfavourable clinical course is reported. It shows that additional immunohistochemical analysis can decisively contribute to determine the site of the primary tumour in cases with unknown primary.
Ettl
Tobias
T
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Muenster University, Germany. et200@gmx.de
Kleinheinz
Johannes
J
Mehrotra
Ravi
R
Schwarz
Stephan
S
Reichert
Torsten Eugen
TE
Driemel
Oliver
O
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary*; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053554:Keratin-20 / Q000032:analysis; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000556:secondary*; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D000074482:Thyroid Nuclear Factor 1; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000032:analysis
D053554:Keratin-20; C000614412:NKX2-1 protein, human; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D000074482:Thyroid Nuclear Factor 1; D014157:Transcription Factors