[Electron therapy of malignant parotid tumors]

Between 1968 and 1984, 61 patients with malignant parotid tumors were irradiated with fast electrons. The irradiation was performed after surgery in 58 patients, 37 out of them had tumor reresidues at the beginning of radiotherapy. The local recurrence rate was 16%, and there were no differences between patients operated in sano and patients operated non in sano. The survival at five years, however, was only 43%. This is explained by the preponderance of tumor histologies with unfavorable prognoses. Distant metastases were observed in 38% of patients. 8/10 patients with local recurrences developed distant metastases. It is noticeable that polymorphous adenomas were found in the anamneses of ten patients and histologically different secondary carcinomas in 9/61 cases.