Adenocarcinomas of major and minor salivary gland origin: a histopathologic review of treatment failure patterns.

Fifty-four cases of adenocarcinoma of major and minor salivary gland origin were seen between 1960 and 1980. Fifty of these were treated definitively. Planned surgery combined with radiation was the initial treatment for 22 patients (44%), surgery alone for 15 (30%), and radiation alone for 13 (26%). Of the patients receiving surgery with curative intent, 82% underwent complete resections (i.e., negative margins). Cervical lymph node involvement was present in 23% of cases, and 73% of these patients died of their disease within 3 years. Distant metastases developed in 37% of patients, with a median time of 1 year; 93% of these patients died within 3 years. Histologic grading was performed using objective criteria. Thirty-four percent of tumors were well-differentiated, 27% moderately differentiated, and 39% poorly differentiated. Patients with well-differentiated adenocarcinomas tended to survive disease-free longer and developed fewer distant metastases than those patients with moderately or poorly differentiated tumors.