ADENOSQUAMOUS CARCINOMA - A RARE NEOPLASM WITH AN AGGRESSIVE COURSE

We report a case of adenosquamous carcinoma that arose in the maxillar y alveolus of a 61-year-old woman, metastasized rapidly to submandibul ar and deep cervical lymph nodes, and caused death in spite of surgery and radiotherapy. Our case highlights the aggressive behavior associa ted with this tumor when it occurs in the oral cavity and at most othe r body sites. In addition, the oral adenosquamous carcinoma may not be as rare as the small number of reported cases might suggest because t he adenocarcinoma component may form a very small proportion of the tu mor as in our case, and the histopathologic criteria for diagnosis are not clearly established. Thus some cases of adenosquamous carcinoma m ay not be recognized as such. This underlines the important role of th e histopathologist in the diagnosis of oral cancer by the recognition of specific subtypes of cancer and their associated prognostic signifi cance.