Diagnostic utility of C-kit protein (CD117) expression in differentiating adenoid cystic carcinoma and polymorphous low grade Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: To evaluate usefulness of immunohistochemical marker C-kit (CD117) in differentiating Adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) from Polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma (PLGA) in patients of salivary gland carcinomas. AdCC is a malignant salivary gland neoplasm with poor prognosis. PLGA is a salivary gland malignancy with indolent growth pattern. Differentiating between the two entities is a diagnostic challenge. We evaluated the role of C-kit in differentiating the two. METHODS: This is a Cross sectional study. Samples of 19 tumors including 12 AdCC and 4 PLGA was evaluated at Department of Histopathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi from December 2015 to August 2016. Immunohistochemical techniques were used to analyze the level of c-kit expression in AdCC (n = 12), polymorphous low-grade adenocarcinoma (PLGA) (n = 6). Samples were stained using monoclonal antibody against C-kit. Statistical analysis of the data was done using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: Strong diffuse cytoplasmic reactivity was observed in more than 50% of the tumor cells of AdCC whereas less than 20% of cells showed negative to weak positivity in PLGA. Hence, the difference in the expression of c-kit between AdCC and PLGA was statistically significant (p value <0.002). CONCLUSIONS: CD117 expression itself can be used as a marker in differential diagnosis of salivary gland neoplasms. However, the percentage of the CD117 immunoreactive cells and the staining intensities appeared to be important factors in distinguishing AdCC from PLGA.