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-IDCNOS, 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 Gl-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.(C) 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.