title: Salivary glands tumours: a retrospective study of 454 patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Maxillofacial Surgical Unit, Torrette Regional Hospital, Ancona, Italy. g.ascani@ao-umbertoprimo.marche.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ascani
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pieramici
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Messi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lupi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rubini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balercia
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017678:Sex Distribution