Ear
External ear tumors - malignant
Ceruminous adenocarcinoma
Author: Nat Pernick, M.D.
Last author update: 1 January 2014
Last staff update: 14 December 2020
Copyright: 2002-2024, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: ceruminous adenocarcinoma
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Treatment | Case reports | Microscopic (histologic) description | Differential diagnosisCite this page: Pernick N. Ceruminous adenocarcinoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/earceruminalglandadenocarcinoma.html. Accessed April 18th, 2024.
Definition / general
- Usually men, ages 30 - 59 years but wide age range
- Associated with local pain
- Tends to recur locally; only rarely metastasizes to regional lymph nodes and lung
- Adenoid cystic carcinoma subtypes (Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 1993;250:240) usually have relatively good 5 year survival, but poor 10 and 20 year survival
Treatment
- En bloc resection
- More radical surgery if middle ear or temporal bone involvement
- Radiation therapy
Case reports
- 38 year old man with ceruminous gland adenoid cystic carcinoma with contralateral metastasis to the brain (Arch Pathol Lab Med 2002;126:87)
- 54 year old man with ceruminous gland adenocarcinoma (Cancer 1978;41:545)
- 57 year old man with recurrent ceruminous adenocarcinoma of the external auditory canal (ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec 2003;65:300)
- Patient with adenocarcinoma of ceruminous glands (Acta Morphol Hung 1991;39:157)
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Loss of glandular double cell layer as only luminal epithelial cells are present
- Pleomorphism, nuclear anaplasia, mitotic activity and invasive growth are evident except in well differentiated tumors which may resemble adenomas except for invasive growth
- Variants include adenoid cystic carcinoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma
Differential diagnosis
- Direct extension of parotid gland tumors
- Dermal eccrine cylindroma
- Paraganglioma of middle ear
