TUMORS OF THE MAJOR AND MINOR SALIVARY-GLANDS - REVIEW OF 25 YEARS OFEXPERIENCE

Reports from various countries, but never from Israel, have presented demographic data and the relative frequency of various salivary gland tumors. We reviewed 25 years of experience with 245 patients treated f or salivary gland tumors, arising in the parotid [142 patients [pts], 57.9%], submandibular [34 pts, 13.9%], sublingual [2 pts, 0.8%] and mi nor salivary glands [67 pts, 27.3%]. Of these, 73.5% were classified a s benign and 26.5% were classified as malignant. The tumors were analy zed according to sex and age of the pts, histopathological type and si te. There was a female preponderance [1.16:1.0] for the benign tumors and a male preponderance [1.32:1.0] for the malignant tumors. The mean age for pts with malignant tumors was 12.6 years more than for pts wi th benign tumors [55.2 +/- 2.2 and 42.6 +/- 2.6 years, respectively]. The principal site for benign tumors was the parotid gland [67.8%], fo llowed by the minor salivary glands [18.9%] and the submandibular glan d [13.3%]. We did not observe any benign tumors in the sublingual glan ds. The principal site for malignant tumors was the minor salivary gla nds [50.8%], followed by the parotid gland [30.8%], the submandibular gland [15.4%] and the sublingual gland [3.0%]. We present the proporti onal distribution of both benign and malignant tumors; pleomorphic ade noma was the most common benign tumor of epithelial origin [76.1%] whi le the most commonly encountered malignant tumor was adenocarcinoma [i ncluding the acinic-cell and low-grade polymorphous subtypes] [27.7%]. The most striking result of this study is the demonstration of a rece nt increase in the incidence of salivary malignant tumors, possibly as a result of greater exposure to ultraviolet radiation. It is highly p robable that the increase in malignant tumors will continue during the coming years in countries with intense solar radiation over long peri ods of time.