Benign and malignant neoplasms of the parotid gland: incidence and histology in the Danish County of Funen.

The present series is comprised of 155 patients from the county of Funen who were operated on for tumors of the parotid gland during the 5-year period, 1978 to 1982. Fifteen cases were malignant, 116 were benign, while no neoplasms were found in 24 cases. The incidence was calculated as 5.8 parotid neoplasms per year per 100,000 inhabitants. Computation of age standardized incidence rates adjusted to European and World Standard populations has been performed. It is stated that the county of Funen is a well-defined area and the series can be regarded to be representative of a certain geographical area. The histological classification was carried out according to the rules of the World Health Organization (WHO) and revealed a remarkably high occurrence of Warthin's tumors, i.e., 27.5%.