Salivary gland-like breast carcinomas: An infrequent disease

To show the incidence, as well as the clinical and histopathological characteristics, of patients diagnosed with mammary salivary gland-like carcinomas at our institution.

A retrospective study was conducted in all women diagnosed with breast cancer at our institution from January 2005 to February 2016. Patients with diagnosis of salivary gland-like breast carcinomas were included.

In this period, 6384 patients were diagnosed with breast cancer at our institution; salivary gland-like carcinomas were found in 7 patients (0.1%), adenoid cystic carcinoma was diagnosed in 5 patients (0.07%), acinic cell carcinoma in 1 patient (0.015%) and mucoepidermoid carcinoma in 1 patient (0.015%). The triple-negative subtype was found in all of the tumors. Median follow-up was 66.3 months (range, 1-108 months). No patient developed local or distant recurrence.

Salivary gland-like breast tumors are extremely rare. We found a global incidence of 0.1%. Adenoid cystic, acinic cell and mucoepidermoid carcinomas were the three histologic types diagnosed. Although the triple-negative subtype is mainly found, good prognosis is expected.