Nucleolar organizer regions in malignant salivary gland tumors

Submandibular oncocytic carcinoma: A case report and literature review

BACKGROUND

Oncocytic carcinoma (OC) arising in the submandibular gland is an unusual malignant neoplasm, with <20 cases previously reported. The cancer is characterized by numerous morphologically abnormal mitochondria present in the cytoplasm and marked cellular pleomorphism. At its most severe, the tumor may invade into the surrounding tissues, including intravascular, lymphatic, or perineural invasion, and lead to regional nodal or distant metastasis.

METHODS

The current study describes a novel OC case in a 46-year-old male, the youngest case of the review. The patient presented with a 5-month history of an intermittently painful mass.

RESULTS

Following magnetic resonance imaging, excisional biopsy, hematoxylin-eosin staining, phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin staining, and immunohistochemical examination, an OC of the submandibular gland was diagnosed.

CONCLUSION

The current study summarizes the pathogenesis, diagnosis, therapeutics, and the prognosis of OC. The literature review regarding this rare disease is also presented to emphasize the lack of specific markers of OC and the risk of cervical lymph metastasis.

Nucleolar organizer regions in adenoid cystic carcinoma of the salivary glands

In this study of proliferative activity of adenoid cystic carcinomas (ACCs) with different histological patterns, the argyrophilic staining method of nucleolar organizer regions (AgNORs) was applied to paraffin sections from 25 tumors. Sixteen of the neoplasms showed a mixture of different histological patterns in the same section. The AgNOR numbers in the different histological pattern areas in the same tissue sections of all 16 tumors were lowest in the cribriform, intermediate in the trabecular, and highest in the solid pattern areas. The mean AgNOR number was highest in the solid pattern (3.33 +/- 0.52), and lowest in the cribriform pattern (2.12 +/- 0.43). The results show the order of proliferative activity in the different histological pattern areas of ACC, and explain the previous clinical finding that the prognosis of ACC is poorest in solid pattern ACCs. AgNOR staining appears to be a useful technique for evaluation of the proliferative activity of each histological pattern area of ACC, especially when there are different histological pattern areas in the same tissue section.