"Adenoid cystic" and basaloid carcinomas of the ovary: evidence for a surface epithelial lineage. A report of 12 cases.

Twelve ovarian neoplasms resembling salivary gland carcinomas and cutaneous basal cell carcinomas were studied and assigned to two groups: six with an exclusive or conspicuous component resembling adenoid cystic carcinoma and six with an exclusive or predominant component resembling basal cell carcinoma. The patients whose tumors simulated an adenoid cystic carcinoma presented at 60 to 78 (mean, 67) years of age. The adenoid cystic-like pattern was present in the primary ovarian tumor in five cases and four of these tumors had an additional surface epithelial-stromal component (serous adenocarcinoma in two, endometrioid adenocarcinoma in one, and mixed clear cell/endometrioid adenocarcinoma in one). The one patient with a Stage Ia tumor was free of disease at 37 months. Of the four patients whose tumors were Stage IIIc, two died of tumor at 13 and 123 months, respectively; another was alive with tumor at 27 months; and one was lost to follow-up. In the sixth case, an adenoid cystic-like pattern was present in a recurrent tumor in a patient from whom an ovarian endometrioid adenocarcinoma had been excised 11 years earlier. The patients whose carcinomas were predominantly or entirely basaloid presented at 19 to 65 (mean, 49) years of age. Three of these tumors had prominent squamous differentiation and gland formation, suggesting a relation to endometrioid carcinoma; three other tumors had an ameloblastoma-like pattern, with focal squamous differentiation in one, and a minor component of endometrioid adenocarcinoma adjacent to another. The four patients in the basaloid carcinoma group with Stage Ia tumors were alive without tumor at 16 to 71 (mean, 35) months.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)