Salivary duct carcinoma.

Salivary duct carcinoma is a high-grade neoplasm associated primarily with the parotid gland. Its abysmal prognosis demands aggressive clinical management. Initially named after its resemblance to intraductal carcinoma of the breast, this entity derives its histogenesis from the excretory duct reserve cells, which are also the source of origin of other biologically high-grade neoplasms. As this is a lesion seldom encountered by the clinician, it is important for the pathologist to clearly make the distinction between this malignancy and more indolent neoplasms, such as terminal duct adenocarcinoma.