The demographic and clinicopathological features of salivary gland tumors in Turkey

Abstract

Aim: Salivary gland tumors (SGTs) are rare neoplasms thus, the local records are valuable to obtain the epidemiological overview. This study aimed to determine the demographic and clinicopathological features of SGTs in our clinic and compare the findings with the studies from Turkey and all over the world.Material and methods: The data of 185 patients who underwent surgery for SGT in The Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery of a tertiary referral center between 2012 and 2017 were studied retrospectively. The demographic and clinicopathological features of the patients were recorded.Results: Among all patients with primary and secondary SGTs, the median age was 53 years, 54.6% of the patients were men. Patients with primary tumor constituted 96.8% of all cases. Malignancy rate was 14. Parotid gland was the most common location (90%). Nearly half of all primary tumors were diagnosed as pleomorphic adenoma (n=84, 46.9%). Mucoepidermoid carcinoma was the most common malign neoplasm of the parotid gland. There were only six patients (3.2%) that had secondary SGT.Conclusion: Pleomorphic adenoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma were the most common benign and malign pathologies, respectively. The lowest malignancy rate and the highest rate of warthin tumor of the existing literature were the most conspicuous findings of our study. Although the frequency of the secondary SGTs is low, the possibility of metastasis should be considered especially for the patients above 65 years of age.