Clinical analysis of 12 patients with primary lymphoepithelial carcinoma of the parotid gland.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The WHO recently designated salivary gland lymphoepithelial carcinoma as a unique malignant tumor that most commonly occurs in the parotid gland. This is a rare cancer and there are few reports in the literature. Among 854 patients with parotid gland tumors who were admitted to our institution, we diagnosed 12 patients (1.41%) with parotid lymphoepithelial carcinoma.

METHODS

Retrospective analysis of 12 patients with parotid lymphoepithelial carcinoma diagnosed by the Department of Pathology, Xiangya Hospital of Central South University.

RESULTS

All 12 patients had unilateral parotid gland disease and 8 had cervical lymph node metastasis. Five patients received PCR testing for the Epstein-Barr virus and two were positive. All patients received surgical treatment, two received surgical resection alone, nine received surgery and postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and one received surgery and postoperative chemotherapy. The postoperative follow-up time ranged from 13 to 77 months. As of the last follow-up, eight patients were tumor-free, one patient was lost to follow-up, and three patients died. The main cause of death was local tumor recurrence and multiple metastases throughout the body.

CONCLUSION

Parotid lymphoepithelial carcinoma is a malignant neoplasm characterized by proliferation, invasion, and inclusion of poorly differentiated or undifferentiated carcinoma, and a high rate of metastasis to ipsilateral cervical lymph nodes. The comprehensive treatment method consists of radical resection combined with postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. After this comprehensive treatment, the 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year overall survival rates of our patients were 100%, 78.8%, and 39.4%.