Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma of the salivary glands. A study of 22 cases.

Twenty-two cases of epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma of major and minor salivary glands were studied retrospectively to define the clinico-pathological profile and to assess the value of DNA ploidy as a prognostic tool. Fifty-nine percent of the cases occurred in the major salivary glands, the patients being mostly females in their 5th to 8th decades. The clinical course was characterized by a high number of recurrences (in 50% of cases). Death due to the neoplastic disease was found in 40% of the patients. The only morphological feature found to be correlated to prognosis was the presence of nuclear atypia in more than 20% of the tumour cells. In 18 cases, cytophotometric DNA analysis was performed; 15 cases had a diploid DNA histogram and 3 an aneuploid one. All the cases that were DNA aneuploid were of the solid, predominantly clear-cell type and were associated with fatal outcome.