Acinic Cell Carcinoma in the 21st Century: A Population-Based Study from the SEER Database and Review of Recent Molecular Genetic Advances

Abstract

Background: Acinic cell carcinoma (AciCC) comprises 6-7% of all salivary gland neoplasms and is the second most common salivary gland malignancy in children. Like many salivary gland carcinomas, it is considered low grade but occasionally it behaves aggressively. Understanding the risk factors associated with recurrence, metastasis, and death is important to determine the counseling and management of individual patients. Older population-based studies are presumed to have been confounded by the misclassification of other neoplasms as AciCC, in particular secretory carcinoma and cystadenocarcinoma. Since diagnostic tools to reliably separate these entities have been available for over a decade, reevaluation of epidemiologic data limited to the 21st century should allow a better characterization of the clinicopathological characteristics of AciCC.

Methods: Our study extracted data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database for the period 2000 to 2018. Cox regression model analysis was performed to identify risk factors independently affecting survival.

Results: Data for 2226 patients with AciCC were extracted from the database. Most patients were females: 59%, and white: 80.5%, with a mean age at diagnosis of 51.2 (SD ± 18.7) years. Most cases (81%) were localized at presentation. Tumor size was less than 2 cm in 42%, 2-4 cm in 47%, and >4 cm in 11%. Low-grade tumors had 5-year survival > 90%, whereas high-grade tumors had survival < 50%. Of the patients with known lymph node status only 7.3% had nodal metastases. Distant metastases were documented in 1.1%, involving lungs 44%, bone 40%, liver 12%, and brain 4%. The most common treatment modality was surgery alone: 63.6% followed by surgery and adjuvant radiation: 33%. A few received chemotherapy (1.8%) or multimodality therapy (1.2%). The 5-year overall survival rate was 90.6% (95%CI 89.1-91.9), and disease-specific survival was 94.6% (95%CI 93.3-95.6). Multivariable cox regression analysis showed that undifferentiated (HR = 8.3) and poorly differentiated tumor grade (HR = 6.4), and metastasis (HR = 5.3) were the worst independent prognostic factors. Other poor risk factors included age > 50 (HR = 3.5) and tumor size > 4 cm (HR = 2.5).

Conclusions: In the US, AciCC is more common in middle age white females, and most tumors are less than 4 cm and localized at diagnosis. The most relevant negative prognostic factor was high tumor grade which was associated with higher hazard ratios for death than all other variables, including regional or distant metastases at presentation.