36 cases adenoid cystic carcinoma of the breast in China: Comparison with matched grade one invasive ductal carcinoma-not otherwise specified.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological characteristic of adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

The clininopathological features, along with relapse free survival(RFS) and overall survival(OS) of 36 patients with ACC were retrospectively investigated and compared with those of 108 grade 1 invasive ductal carcinoma not-otherwise-specified (G1-IDC-NOS) patients.

RESULTS

Most cases of ACC were ER, PR and HER-2 negative which was classified as triple-negative subtype. Five cases were concomitant with other pathological types of cancer. Axillary lymph node dissection(ALND) was performed in 31 patients and 2 of them with lymph nodes metastasis. Two patients died of lung metastases at 46 and 116 months after the surgery respectively. Compared with G1-IDC-NOS, ACC showed lower Ki-67 index, less lymph nodes metastasis, lower P53 expression, and higher proportion in location of upper outer quadrant of breast. There was no difference of OS and RFS between ACC and G1-IDC-NOS.

CONCLUSIONS

ACC of the breast was a rare disease with a good prognosis although most of them were classified as triple-negative subtype. And the value of axillary node dissection and adjuvant therapy needs to be further investigated.