Epidemiological and histopathological patterns of salivary gland tumors in Cameroon

Tumors of salivary glands are rare. According to Johns and Goldsmith in 1989, their annual incidence is less than 1/100000 without noteworthy geographical gap. But other authors suggest that their distribution may vary according to the race and geographical location. In Cameroon, existing studies give incomplete data. Hence, we underwent this study in order to draw the general profile of salivary gland tumors in Cameroon.

A retrospective study was carried out on the period spanning from January 2000 to December 2010 (11 years). It was done in nine Pathology services of different hospitals in Yaoundé, Douala and Bamenda. We consulted the archive registers of those services, retaining any patient with salivary gland tumor, whatever the histological type or location. Information gathered was the year of diagnosis, the service, the age and sex, the site of the tumor (gland) the histological type and the benign/ malignant character.

We recruited a total of 275 files. Women were 56% (154/275) and men 44% (121/275) of the sample. Fifty eight tumors were malignant (21.9%) while 217 were benign (78.1%). The overall mean age was 37.44 years, with extremes between 1 and 84 years. Pleomorphic adenoma (60.36%) was the most common benign tumor. Adenoid cystic carcinoma (31%), mucoepidermoid carcinoma (22.4%) and adenocarcinoma (19%) were the most common malignant tumors. Palate (66.7%), cheek (30%) and lips (3.3%) were the sites were the minor salivary glands were mostly involved.

The differences with western world authors suggest a geographical variability of salivary gland tumors.