Outcomes of Postoperative Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Major Salivary Gland Carcinoma

Abstract

Locally advanced or high-grade salivary gland carcinomas follow an aggressive clinical course. Based on our limited experience, postoperative chemoradiation with a platinum-based regimen seems to be effective in selected patients and warrants further investigation.

Outcomes and prognostic factors for surgery followed by modern radiation therapy in parotid gland carcinomas

“…In our study, the frequencies of distant metastasis in high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma and salivary duct carcinoma were 40, 20 and 13%, respectively. A potential benefit in 3-year OS for adjuvant platinum-based CCRT compared with matched controls in 12 patients with major salivary gland carcinoma has been demonstrated in a small retrospective review (8). In addition, certain histologic types of parotid gland cancers also exhibit specific molecular targets for potential treatment.…”

Prognostic factors in adenocarcinoma of the salivary glands

“…Malignancies of the salivary glands are estimated to comprise approximately 5% of all head and neck cancers and represent a wide array of pathologies due to the numerous cell types present in the salivary secretory acini and ductal units [1,2]. Adenocarcinoma (adenoCA) is estimated as the third most common malignancy of the salivary glands, after mucoepidermoid carcinoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma [1,3,4], but itself offers varying histologic subtypes, of which the most common are salivary ductal carcinoma (SDC), adenocarcinoma not otherwise specified (adenoCA NOS), salivary ductal carcinoma ex-pleomorphic adenoma (SDCA ex pleo), polymorphous type adenocarcinoma (PLGA), cystadenocarcinoma and basal cell adenocarcinoma (BCA).…”

Management of Regional Metastases of Malignant Salivary Gland Neoplasms

“…The corresponding survival rates were 49 and 19%, respectively (p = 0.015). More recently, a single institution report has suggested that combining radiation with platinum-based chemotherapy may improve long-term survival among patients with locally advanced salivary gland carcinoma [19] . Thus, this treatment approach warrants investigation in patients with salivary gland carcinoma and clinically obvious lymph node metastases.…”

“…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] .…”