Salivary gland carcinomas represent a heterogeneous group of poorly characterized head and neck tumors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate ALK gene and protein aberrations in a large, well-characterized cohort of these tumors. A total of 182 salivary gland carcinomas were tested for anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) positivity by immunohistochemistry (IHC) using the cut-off of 10% positive cells. ALK positive tumors were subjected to FISH analysis and followed by hybrid capture-based next generation sequencing (NGS). Of the 182 tumors, 8 were ALK positive by IHC. Further analysis using hybrid capture NGS analysis revealed a novel MYO18A (Exon1-40)-ALK (exon 20-29) gene fusion in one case of intraductal carcinoma. Additional genomic analyses resulted in the detection of inactivating mutations in BRAF and TP53, as well as amplifications of ERBB2 and ALK. ALK rearrangements are a rare entity in salivary gland carcinomas. We identified a potentially targetable novel ALK fusion in an intraductal carcinoma of minor salivary glands.

Department of Biology and Medical Genetics Medical University of Gdańsk Gdańsk Poland

Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy Medical University of Gdańsk Gdańsk Poland

Department of Otolaryngology Medical University of Gdańsk Gdańsk Poland

Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Maxillofacial Surgery Køge University Hospital Køge Denmark

Department of Pathomorphology Medical University of Gdańsk ul Smoluchowskiego 17 80 211 Gdańsk Poland

Department of Tissue Pathology and Diagnostic Oncology University of Sydney Sydney Australia

Institute of Hematopathology Hamburg Hamburg Germany

NEO New Oncology GmbH Cologne Germany

The Fingerland Department of Pathology Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Hradec Kralove and University Hospital Hradec Kralove Hradec Kralove Czech Republic

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