Primary Secretory Carcinoma of the Lacrimal Gland: Report of a New Entity.

PURPOSE: Secretory carcinoma has been described in the breast, salivary glands, skin, and other organs, but has not been reported in the lacrimal gland to date. Since lacrimal and salivary glands show similar tumors, we hypothesized that lacrimal secretory carcinoma may exist but has been misclassified in the past.

DESIGN: We undertook a retrospective review of all lacrimal gland tumors at 2 tertiary institutions with centralized ocular pathology practices.

METHODS: A total of 350 lacrimal tumors were reviewed by the authors. Candidate tumors were tested for ETV-NTRK rearrangement by fluorescence in situ hybridization and the presence of the translocation was confirmed by next-generation sequencing.

RESULTS: We identified a single case of secretory carcinoma. The diagnosis was confirmed by demonstrating specific immunohistochemical profile and the presence of ETV6-NTRK3 gene fusion, which is characteristic of secretory carcinoma of other sites. The tumor occurred in a young man who was treated with surgery alone with no recurrence during 12 years of follow-up.

CONCLUSION: Secretory carcinoma is a new lacrimal gland carcinoma type that should be added to the spectrum of low-grade lacrimal gland tumors.