[Clinical analysis of sixteen cases of lymphoepithelial carcinoma of salivary gland].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Lymphoepithelial carcinoma of salivary gland is a rare and special kind of malignant tumor, and has seldom been reported. This study was to summarize the clinical features, treatment and curative effect of this disease according to our experiences.

METHODS: Clinical data of 16 patients with pathologically confirmed primary lymphoepithelial carcinoma of salivary gland, treated in Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University from Jan. 1990 to Sep. 2004, were retrospectively analyzed, and survival analysis was performed with Kaplan-Meier method.

RESULTS: The 16 patients with lymphoepithelial carcinoma of salivary gland accounted for 3.6% of all the patients diagnosed as malignant tumors of salivary gland simultaneously in our center. All patients had tumors occurred in unilateral gland, aged 15-57 years, with the female to male ratio of 1:1. All patients were from southern China. Except for 1 patient, the rest 15 had Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) serological tests. The positive rates of EBV-VCA-IgA, EBV-EA-IgA, and EBV-DNA enzyme were 93.3%, 66.7%, and 86.7%, respectively. All patients were treated with surgery, of which 9 received surgery only, 5 received surgery plus postoperative radiotherapy, 1 received surgery plus postoperative chemoradiotherapy, 1 received surgery plus chemotherapy. Four (25.0%) patients had postoperative pathology-proved ipsilateral cervical lymph node metastasis. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates of the 16 patients were 86.15%, 48.46%, and 24.23%.

CONCLUSIONS: Although lymphoepithelial carcinoma of salivary gland is poorly differentiated, the prognosis of this disease is good. Complete resection plus postoperative radiotherapy is possibly accommodating.