Clinicopathological and prognostic analysis of 58 patients with head and neck adenoid cystic carcinoma

Objective To approach the prognostic factors of head and neck adenoid cystic carcinoma.Methods Fifty-eight head and neck adenoid cystic carcinomas were treated from January 1999 to December 2007.The demographic and clinicopathological data were obtained from a retrospective chart review.The follow-up and survival analysis were carried out to analyze the significant prognostic factors.Results Using the univariate analysis,the variables,such as histologic type,perineural invasion,vascular invasion,recurrence,metastasis and TNM stage were found significantly associated with a worse prognosis (P ＜ 0.05 ).Multivariate analysis showed that histologic type,perineural invasion and TNM stage had an independent prognostic effect on survival (P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusion The variables including histologic type,TNM stage,perineural and vascular invasion,recurrence and metastasis are important prognostic factors for head and neck adenoid cystic carcinoma. Key words: Carcinoma,adenoid cystic; Head and neckneoplasms; Prognosis