Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck: a clinical study of 37 cases.

Thirty-seven cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma treated at the Otolaryngologic Clinic of the University of Florence between 1962 and 1979 were studied. The patients were treated with radical surgical excision (20), non-radical surgery associated with radiotherapy (13), or with palliative treatment (4). The aim of this study is to evaluate the course of the disease according to the site and type of operation. Our results show that non-radical surgical treatment associated with radiotherapy seems to give results comparable to those obtained with radical surgery alone.