Salivary glands tumours: a retrospective study of 454 patients.
OBJECTIVE
Salivary glands tumors constitute a highly heterogeneous group in human oncological pathology. They show different clinical, epidemiological, histopathological and evolutionary characteristics.


METHODS
In this paper we have analysed their epidemiological aspects in 454 patients with salivary glands tumors surgically treated at the Maxillofacial Surgical Unit of the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria ''Ospedali Riuniti Umberto I-G.M. Lancisi-G. Salesi'', Ancona, Italy, from 1990 to 2002, to evaluate the incidence of the different types of neoplasia and their age and sex distribution.


RESULTS
Our results show that 63.22% of salivary glands tumors occur in the parotid gland, with a predominance of benign tumours, pleomorphic adenoma being the most prevalent histological type. A higher prevalence was observed in the female sex.


CONCLUSIONS
Malignant tumors were more common in the elderly than in young patients and the most common histological types were mucoepidermoid carcinoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma.
Ascani
G
G
Maxillofacial Surgical Unit, Torrette Regional Hospital, Ancona, Italy. g.ascani@ao-umbertoprimo.marche.it
Pieramici
T
T
Messi
M
M
Lupi
E
E
Rubini
C
C
Balercia
P
P
D017677:Age Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017678:Sex Distribution