Salivary Duct Carcinoma With Rhabdoid Features—No or Aberrant Expression of E-cadherin and Genetic Changes in CDH1

Salivary duct carcinoma is a relatively uncommon malignancy of the salivary glands; however, it frequently occurs as a carcinomatous component of carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma. We previously reported salivary duct carcinoma with rhabdoid features (SDCRF) as an extremely rare subtype of salivary duct carcinoma, and that it occurred as a salivary counterpart of pleomorphic lobular carcinoma of the breast (PLCB). We collected new cases of SDCRF for this study, in which we examined a total of 17 cases immunohistochemically and genetically. As it is known that PLCB exhibits loss of or aberrant E-cadherin expression and carries nonsense/missense mutations in or deletion of the CDH1 gene, we examined the CDH1 gene status of our SDCRF cases. All of the examined SDCRF cases involved the diffuse proliferation of large ovoid cells with eosinophilic cytoplasm and eccentric nuclei, which displayed reduced cell-cell adhesion. Most cases were positive for pan-cytokeratin, androgen receptor, gross cystic disease fluid protein-15, SWI/SNF-related matrix-associated actin-dependent regulator of chromatin subfamily B member 1, and WI/SNF-related matrix-associated actin-dependent regulator of chromatin subfamily A member 4, whereas they were negative for vimentin. No and decreased/cytoplasmic E-cadherin expression was observed in 11 and 4 of 17 cases, respectively, whereas no and decreased/cytoplasmic β-catenin expression were observed in 10 and 5 of 17 cases, respectively. Among the 11 cases that could be genetically analyzed, a nonsense mutation (1 case), missense mutations (6 cases), and insertions (1 case) were detected in the CDH1 gene. In conclusion, we propose that SDCRF is the salivary counterpart of PLCB due to its morphology and immunophenotype, and the genetic status of CDH1.