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BACKGROUND. Acinic cell carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignant salivary gland tumour. It is of a low-grade type. The commonest site involved is the parotid gland. ACC is not common in minor salivary glands; this tumour type mainly arises in the oral cavity. CASE REPORT.We present an 84-year-old Malay man with spontaneous, self-limiting, left-sided epistaxis for 2 days. He also had progressive left-sided nasal blockage. There was no hyposmia, blurry vision or headache. He had underlying hypertension. The clinical examination showed he was normotensive. There was no external nasal deformity. The anterior rhinoscopy demonstrated a fungating irregular mass filling up the left nasal vestibule. There was no neck node. The computed tomography showed a tumour localized in the nasal cavity. The biopsy showed features of acinic cell carcinoma. We proceeded with left lateral rhinotomy and wide excision. Intraoperatively, we discovered that the tumour aroused from the nasal septum and part of the septum had to be sacrificed for margin clearance. Currently, he is on routine surveillance and tumour-free. CONCLUSION.We highlighted the importance of recognizing nasal acinic cell carcinoma and the fact that early biopsy is important as surgery provides a good prognosis even in the extreme age group.

BACKGROUND. The malignant sinonasal tumour is very rare. Sinonasal adenocarcinoma comprises only 10-20% of all primary malignant sinonasal tumours. The commonest type is the maxillary squamous cell carcinoma. It commonly presents with nasal blockage, nasal discharge and epistaxis during the early stage. Headache and blurry vision may occur at an advanced stage when it has invaded the brain, the eye or the optic nerve. CASE REPORT.We present a 63-year-old patient with acute progressive worsening unilateral blurry vision and headache for 1 month.Epistaxis with anosmia developed only later. The patient had a neuroimaging by both Computed Tomography (CT) scan and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan which showed a skull base tumour, but early biopsy was inconclusive. He underwent combined transcranial and transsphenoidal tumor debulking in view of clinical impression of olfactory neuroblastoma. The histopathological examination showed adenocarcinoma. He was sent for postoperative radiotherapy. CONCLUSION.We highlighted that a patient with sinonasal adenocarcinoma may present initially with the symptom of invasion to neighbouring structures prior to the local symptom.