c-kit expression in adenoid cystic carcinoma does not have an impact on local or distant tumor recurrence.

Abstract

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a neoplasm with unpredictable behavior with frequent late relapses that lacks good prognostic indicators. c-kit tyrosine kinase oncogene has recently been found to be expressed in ACC. The aim of this study is to correlate the expression of c-kit in ACC with clinical follow-up. Paraffin sections of 45 cases of ACC diagnosed during a 15-year period were immunostained for c-kit. Seventy-eight percent of tumors stained positive for c-kit. Mean follow-up time was 6 years. No degree/pattern of c-kit expression correlated to local or distant tumor recurrence. However, there was a significant association between surgical margin involvement by tumor and cell membrane expression of c-kit. Staining quality was not affected by storage time. Our results suggest that expression of c-kit may not serve as a useful marker for predicting outcome in ACC, although they need to be confirmed in a larger patient population with longer clinical follow-up.