Salivary gland tumors: An institutional experience

Abstract

Introduction: Salivary gland neoplasm represents the most complex and diverse group of neoplasm of the head and neck. Their diagnosis and management are complicated by relative infrequency. Around 64%–80% are located in the parotid gland, 7%–11% in the submandibular glands, and the remainder being distributed between the sublingual (1%) and the minor salivary glands (9%–23%) throughout the oral cavity. Aim: The aims of this study were: (1) To assess the frequency of salivary gland tumor based on tumor type and anatomic location. (2) To correlate gender and age in different tumor type. (3) To correlate the location of benign and malignant tumors. Subjects and Methods: A retrospective study was made in the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology from the period of January 2006 to December 2017. Data were collected from the archives maintained in the Department of Oral Medicine, and details of the patient include age, sex, and site of the tumor were obtained and confirmed with histopathological study and sent for statistical analysis. Results: Chi-square test was applied to find the distribution of malignant and benign tumors. The prevalence of salivary gland tumors in our study was 0.3%, and the benign: malignant ratio was 1:2.2, with the mean age of occurrence was 45.01 ± 16.3 years with slight overall female predominance and a male-to-female ratio of 0.7–0.9, respectively. Conclusion: The present study was a single-institutional experience where the analysis of 32 SGTs was carried out. Malignant tumors were more compared to benign. Among benign tumors, pleomorphic adenoma was the most common type. Among the malignant salivary gland tumors, mucoepidermoid carcinoma was the most common, followed by adenoid cystic carcinoma then ex-pleomorphic adenocarcinoma followed by low-grade polymorphous adenocarcinoma.