Clinicopathological characteristics of tumours of the intraoral minor salivary glands in 170 Brazilian patients

Tumours of the minor salivary glands are relatively uncommon, and publications from around the world normally include tumours of both the minor and major salivary glands, making it difficult to assess their prevalence and distribution. Our aim was to evaluate retrospectively the clinicopathological features of a series of tumours of the intraoral minor salivary glands from two universities in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and to compare the data with those from other epidemiological studies. A total of 170 such tumours were diagnosed from 1942 to 2012, and were selected from two university departments of oral pathology. Eighty-nine of the tumours were benign (52%). Pleomorphic adenoma (n=75) and mucoepidermoid carcinoma (n=23) were the most common benign (44%) and malignant tumours (14%), respectively. There were 104 female patients (61%) and both benign and malignant tumours affected more women than men. Significantly more tumours were in the palate (n=95, 56%; p=0.001). We conclude that these tumours had features similar to those from other studies from North and Latin America, but differ from the results presented from Asia. Further studies should be designed to highlight possible geographical and population-specific characteristics of these tumours.