Abstract
BACKGROUND: To explore the clinicopathologic characteristics, treatment and prognostic factors of head and neck acinar cell carcinoma (HNACC) comprehensively. METHODS: A population-based study was conducted using data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1975-2016). Overall survival (OS) and HNACC-specific survival of patients with different clinicopathologic variables were compared using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox multivariate regression. RESULTS: A total of 2624 primary HNACC cases (1052 males, 1572 females) were identified. There was a significant difference in gender distribution. Among the total cohort, 2416 cases originated from salivary glands, including 2325 parotid gland ACC cases. Regardless of confounding factors, the 10-year and 20-year disease-specific survival (DSS) was 93.6 and 90%, respectively. Surgery was favourably associated with better DSS and OS [HR = 0.13, P = 0.0092 and HR = 0.23, P = 0.0203]. Gender was the only demographic independent prognostic factor for both DSS and OS [Male vs female, HR = 3.3, P = 0.0028 for DSS; HR = 2.44, P = 0.0376 for OS]. Higher pathological grade was adversely associated with DSS and OS [Grade II, HR = 4.03, P = 0.0444; Grade III + IV, HR = 35.64, P = 0.0000 for DSS; Grade III + IV, HR = 4.49, P = 0.0000 for OS, Grade I as reference]. In addition, TNM/AJCC stage was commonly associated with prognosis. CONCLUSION: Surgery was the only favourable prognostic indicator for both DSS and OS. Gender, age, pathological differentiation and TNM/AJCC stage were independent prognostic factors for survival.