Clinicopathological characterization of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the esophagus : a case report and literature review

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the esophagus (EACC) is an infrequent malignancy prone to misdiagnosis because of it sharing similar histological patterns with other esophageal tumors. In this work, we comprehensively studied the pathological features of EACC based on a 53-year-old male patient. Histological examination revealed that the lesion presented three types of classical structures, including tubular, cribriform and solid patterns. Immunohistochemical analysis indicated that myoepithelial cell markers CD10 and P63-labelled cells locate in the outer layer of tubular and cribriform patterns, whereas glandular cell markers CK7 and CK8 positive cells accumulate in the inner layer of these patterns. As EACC develops from tubular and cribriform patterns to solid pattern, CK7 and CK8-labelled inner cells gradually disappeared, while P63-positive cells diffusely penetrated into entire tumor mass in the solid pattern. Additionally, it was found that enhanced staining of EMT (Epithelial to mesenchymal transition) marker vimentin in the course of the progression of EACC. These new identified immunohistochemical characters combined with classical histological patterns may not only facilitate precise diagnosis of EACC, but also help in developing targeted therapy for this malignancy.