Research progress in molecular pathology of salivary gland carcinoma and clinical application / 国际生物医学工程杂志

ABSTRACT

Salivary gland cancer includes a group of heterogeneous malignant tumors. The latest WHO classification of head and neck tumors divides salivary gland cancer into 22 histopathological subtypes. The most common clinical subtypes include mucoepidermoid carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, salivary duct carcinoma, acinar cell carcinoma and secretory carcinoma, etc. The histomorphology of the subtypes of salivary gland cancer overlaps, making diagnosis and differential diagnosis difficult. The main treatment for salivary gland cancer is tumor resection and postoperative radiotherapy as appropriate. Even in cases of local progression, recurrence and metastasis, the treatment options available are limited, mainly palliative treatment. Accurate determination of tumor receptor expression, genome and pathway changes is the key to changing the prognosis of patients with local progression or distant metastasis. In this paper, the known genetic mutations, amplifications and protein expression profiles of common salivary gland cancer histological subtypes was summarized, and the significance of the above-mentioned molecular genetic changes for disease diagnosis, future research and personalized targeted therapy was analyzed.