Abstract
Adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) is the second most common salivary gland cancer. This malignant tumor is characterized by its slow growth and in spite of the fact that it has a histological low - grade appearance, a prolonged clinical course usually lasting for years, repeated recurrences, development of distant metastases and high mortality rate are typical signs.
New facts of its biological behavior as well as new fusion oncogenes probably responsible for its carcinogenesis were described in the last few years. In light of these facts, the authors evaluate their own case series of patients suffering from AdCC in this manuscript.
The AdCC of salivary glands shows a greater tendency to development of regional lymph node metastases than previously thought. The MYB-NFIB gene fusion is the major tumor-specific oncogenic event in AdCC with high detection rate.
The MYB-NFIB fusion oncogene could currently only be used as a potential diagnostic tool in difficult histopathological cases of AdCC, especially in late distant metastases.