Adenoid cystic carcinoma. A clinicopathologic study with flow cytometric analysis.

Forty-five patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of salivary glands were retrospectively studied to determine the prognostic use of DNA ploidy analysis compared with clinicopathologic features. Nuclear suspensions were prepared from 37 of these tumors by the Hedley technique on paraffin-embedded material. The DNA content was analyzed by flow cytometry after propidium iodide staining. Thirty-five tumors were diploid and 2 were tetraploid. Mean survival was 117 and 52 months for the diploid and tetraploid patients, respectively. The median S-phase fraction (Spf) of the 35 diploid tumors was 4.45%. Of the 17 diploid patients who died of disease, there were 11 tumors with high Spf (greater than 4.45%) and 6 tumors with a low Spf (P less than 0.05 chi-square test). The presence of more than 30% of a solid pattern in the tumor was strongly associated with poor median survival in Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis (P less than 0.05 log rank test). Grade, stage, recurrence, and metastases were also found to be important prognostic factors. Because few tumors were nondiploid, these results suggest that S-phase fraction analysis may be a more useful prognostic indicator than ploidy classification.

Blood group antigen staining pattern during experimental carcinogenesis in rat palate.

During 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide-induced carcinogenesis in the rat palate, animals were sacrificed at various intervals and stained for blood group antigens B and H (Type 2 chain) by an immunofluorescent method. In rats without signs of epithelial dysplasia, the staining pattern was identical with that in the normal control rats. In rats with definite or questionable (borderline cases) dysplasias, marked changes in blood group antigen staining pattern were seen. Thus, changes in cell-surface carbohydrates during malignant development in the rat palate seem to follow closely the histomorphological changes. As there is good evidence that carcinomas would eventually develop in all rats if they were not sacrificed, it seems that the blood group antigen staining pattern does not predict malignant development in the absence of histological suspicion.

Immunohistochemical demonstration of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) on tissue sections from squamous cell head and neck cancer and plasma CEA levels of the patients.

45 squamous cell head and neck cancers including 36 with carcinoma of the oral cavity and 9 with carcinoma of the maxillary sinus were examined immunohistochemically for the presence of CEA. 12 of 30 carcinomas of the oral cavity and 7 of the 9 carcinomas of the maxillary sinus had tumors containing CEA. This difference in the occurrence of CEA was statistically significant. The mean plasma CEA level of 36 patients with carcinoma of the oral cavity and 7 patients with carcinoma of the maxillary sinus was 1.95 +/- 1.72 ng/ml and 3.70 +/- 3.53 ng/ml, respectively. Significant elevation of plasma CEA levels was found only in the stage-IV group patients with carcinoma of the oral cavity as compared with the stage-I group patients. In the 3 patients having plasma CEA values exceeding 5 ng/ml at the time of pretherapy, plasma CEA levels were decreased to below 2.5 ng/ml with the cancer treatment followed by the complete remission. These findings indicate that plasma CEA as a tumor marker in squamous cell head and neck cancer is meaningful in a small proportion of the cancer patient population.

Myoepithelioma of the palate in a child.

Salivary gland myoepitheliomas are rare tumors accounting for less than 1% of neoplasms of the salivary glands. We report a myoepithelioma arising in the palate of an 8-year-old female, the youngest case in the literature. Electron microscopic and immunohistochemical studies support the myoepithelial origin of this tumor.

Electrophoretic study of keratin polypeptides in chemically-induced oral carcinomas in the hamster.

Comparison was made of the electrophoretic keratin polypeptide patterns of normal hard palate epithelia from three hamsters and of eight palatal squamous cell carcinomas induced by 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA) treatment. Keratin polypeptides from normal epithelia had a molecular weight range of about 48,000 to 70,000. In the tumour extracts, the large polypeptides (above 61,000) found in the normal epithelia were absent, but the majority of other small polypeptides below 61,000 were expressed. Three as yet undefined polypeptides, in the range of 40,000 to 70,000, were detected in tumour extracts, but not in extracts of normal palatal mucosa. The keratin polypeptide electrophoretic alterations in carcinomas of hamster palatal mucosa are similar to those reported for extra-oral carcinomas in other animal species.