Malignant Submandibular Gland Tumors A Review of 91 Patients

Carcinomas arising in the submandibular gland: High propensity for systemic failure

“…We found that patients with submandibular gland carcinoma showed moderate overall 5-year locoregional control (69.7%) and survival (56.8%) rates, rates slightly lower than those (69-85% and 60-71%, respectively) previously reported [7][8][9][10]. This may have been due to the lower proportion of patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma (30.6%) and higher proportion of patients with salivary duct carcinoma (16.1%) observed in our patient cohort, compared with those assessed previously [7][8][9][10].…”

“…This may have been due to the lower proportion of patients with adenoid cystic carcinoma (30.6%) and higher proportion of patients with salivary duct carcinoma (16.1%) observed in our patient cohort, compared with those assessed previously [7][8][9][10]. The survival of patients with salivary gland malignancies is mainly affected by pathologic subtypes.…”

“…The locoregional control rate of submandibular gland tumors is significantly increased by postoperative radiotherapy [7]. For example, in patients with specific high-risk features, including perineural or named nerve invasion, positive margins, extraglandular spread, positive lymph nodes, locally recurrent disease, and high-grade tumors, the actuarial locoregional control rate at 10 years following postoperative radiotherapy was 88% [7], compared with a historical control rate of approximately 50% in patients treated with surgery alone [10]. Salivary gland tumors may have a radiosensitivity similar to that of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck [20,21].…”

Management of Regional Metastases of Malignant Salivary Gland Neoplasms

“…The beneficial effect of postoperative radiation has also been suggested in studies of patients with submandibular gland and minor salivary gland cancers [13][14][15][16] . It is unclear, however, whether radiation should be prescribed to every patient with histologically positive nodes [17] or only to those with multiple positive nodes or extranodal tumor extension [18] .…”

“…In many of these cases, the first echelon is represented by the intraparotid lymph nodes. The mean numbers of intraparotid lymph nodes that have been reported are 7 (range, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] in the superficial lobe and 2 (range, 0-9) in the deep lobe [38] . Furthermore, a statistically significant correlation (p = 0.005) has been observed between the presence of intraparotid metastatic nodes and neck node metastases [39] .…”