Tumors of the major salivary glands

Mucous Gland Tumours

“…All the tumours of low grade malignancy were from the parotid; the remaining 3 were derived from the tongue, the parotid and the submaxillary glands. Smith, Broadbent and Zavaleta (1954) found 7 mucoepidermoid tumours in their series of 32 oral mucous gland tumours, an incidence of 30 per cent compared with the 5 per cent incidence in Stewart, Foote and Becker's (1945) series, the 7 per cent of Rawson et al (1950) and the 11 per cent of Foote and Frazell (1953). The 3 muco-epidermoid tumours in the present series give an incidence of just under 4 per cent.…”

“…7). The presence of cells similar to those found in the " onkocytoma " has been reported as occurring in about 10 per cent of mixed tumours (Foote and Frazell, 1953) and also the occurrence of spindle-cells in bundles or in palisade arrangement, suggesting a myoepithelial origin (SheldoD, 1943).…”

“…2). Foote and Frazell (1953), however, found true multicentric foci in clinically recurrent cases only; they believe that primary (that is, previously untreated) tumours occur as a single mass in the majority of cases. Patey and Thackray (1953), moreover, have shown by means of serial sections of parotid tumours that apparently discrete nodules are in fact continuous with the main body of the growth, the connecting portion of tissue often being quite a slender strand passing through the capsule.…”

“…Here the authors had been careful to adopt narrow histological criteria for the diagnosis of mixed tumour. However, Foote and Frazell (1953) also employed strict criteria in the histological diagnosis of benign and malignant mixed tumours and were able to report 57 tumours as malignant mixed out of 877 tumours of all types occurring in the major salivary glands. In the present series there are no examples of malignant mixed tumours.…”

“…Such tumours are relatively infrequent; they are described briefly and figured by Foote and Frazell (1953).…”