title: Adenoid cystic carcinoma: emerging role of translocations and gene fusions.
abstract: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), the second most common salivary gland malignancy, is notorious for poor prognosis, which reflects the propensity of ACC to progress to clinically advanced metastatic disease. Due to high long-term mortality and lack of effective systemic treatment, the slow-growing but aggressive ACC poses a particular challenge in head and neck oncology. Despite the advancements in cancer genomics, up until recently relatively few genetic alterations critical to the ACC development have been recognized. Although the specific chromosomal translocations resulting in MYB-NFIB fusions provide insight into the ACC pathogenesis and represent attractive diagnostic and therapeutic targets, their clinical significance is unclear, and a substantial subset of ACCs do not harbor the MYB-NFIB translocation. Strategies based on detection of newly described genetic events (such as MYB activating super-enhancer translocations and alterations affecting another member of MYB transcription factor family-MYBL1) offer new hope for improved risk assessment, therapeutic intervention and tumor surveillance. However, the impact of these approaches is still limited by an incomplete understanding of the ACC biology, and the manner by which these alterations initiate and drive ACC remains to be delineated. This manuscript summarizes the current status of gene fusions and other driver genetic alterations in ACC pathogenesis and discusses new therapeutic strategies stemming from the current research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Piotr T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Wysocki
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Evgeny
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Izumchenko
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Juliet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meir
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Patrick K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sidransky
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brait
mesh_terms: D003528:Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic / Q000235:genetics*; D050939:Gene Fusion; D006801:Humans; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / Q000235:genetics*; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D014178:Translocation, Genetic
chemical_list: D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion
keywords: MYB; MYBL1; adenoid cystic carcinoma; salivary gland tumor; translocation