Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the lacrimal gland: the clinical significance of a basaloid histologic pattern.

The authors reviewed 74 adenoid cystic carcinomas of the lacrimal gland, 54 of which had sufficient follow-up data for analysis of survival. Patients with a basaloid pattern in their tumor had a five-year survival rate of 21 per cent and a median survival of three years, whereas patients whose tumor contained no trace of a basaloid component had a five-year survival rate of 71 per cent and a median survival rate of eight years. Nonparametric statistical analysis revealed that this difference in survival was significant at the 0.0005 level. The authors propose that, in the future, pathologists label all adenoid cystic carcinomas as either "basaloid" or "nonbasaloid" and code each case accordingly.