Malignant tumors of the minor salivary glands. Retrospective study on 59 cases

Minor salivary glands cancer account for 2-4% of head and neck cancer, 10% of all oral cavity cancer and 15-23% of all salivary glands cancer (1). There is a remarkable variation in clinical presentation, behavior and histology of those neoplasms. The incidence of malignancy is around 52-60% (2-4) Several classifications of salivary gland tumors have been presented, but for the present study we have utilized the WHO classification of 1992 (5). We present the results of a review of our experience with those malignancies, considering prognostic factors as histopathology, tumor grade, clinical staging, age and sex, primary location, regional and distant metastasis.