Early T Stage Salivary Duct Carcinoma: Outcomes and Implications for Patient Counseling

Salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) is a rare salivary malignancy that often presents at advanced stage. Outcomes of low T stage patients with SDC have not been previously examined in detail. We queried our institution's cancer database and identified 28 patients with SDC in situ or T1/T2 SDC. A retrospective chart review was performed, followed by comparison of clinicopathologic features with N stage, disease-free survival, and overall survival. Patients tended to be male, in their sixties, with a high incidence of regional metastases, as in prior reports. Five-year disease-free and overall survival were 49%. Median disease-free survival was 3.24 years, and overall survival was 4.65 years. Parotid location, vascular invasion, facial nerve sacrifice, and extracapsular extension were associated with worse survival. This study provides practical information for counseling of patients who undergo surgery for a parotid mass and are found to have this aggressive malignancy.