Adenoid cystic carcinoma presenting as a mass in the neck

Three of a personal series of 82 patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma presented with a node in the neck. Two of these patients had no discoverable primary tumour. One of the latter died rapidly, and might have had an undisclosed primary tumour in the lung. The other remains well 3 years after radical neck dissection, and it is possible that he had a tumour arising in an aberrant cervical salivary rest.