[Basal cell adenocarcinoma of the minor salivary glands of the palate. Case report and review of the literature].

Basal cell adenocarcinoma was first introduced as an entity in the second edition of the WHO's "Histologic Typing of Salivary Gland Tumours" in 1991. This tumor was first described in 1990 by Ellis and Wiskovitch from the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP). Basal cell adenocarcinoma accounts for about 2.9% of all salivary gland malignancies. More than 90% of the tumors are situated in the parotid gland. Intraoral manifestations are known from case reports only. Tumors of the palate have been mentioned in three cases. Histologically this tumor can be easily confused with basal cell adenoma and the solid basaloid subtype of adenoid cystic carcinoma. The case presented here is a middle-aged white woman with a basal cell adenocarcinoma of the palate. Therapy consisted of surgical extirpation with three-dimensional safety margins and histologically proven clear resection margins. Knowledge at this point indicates that basal cell adenocarcinoma has a rather high probability of local recurrence (up to 50%) and a mostly lymphogenous metastatic potential for as long as 10 years after removal of the primary tumor. Ten year survival is around 75%.