Clinicopathologic evaluation of salivary gland neoplasms: a 38-year retrospective study in Iran

We present a 38-year retrospective study of 165 patients with salivary gland tumors that were diagnosed from 1971 to 2009 in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Mashhad, Iran. The histologic diagnoses were reevaluated according to the 2005 World Health Organization classification. A total of 165 tumors were identified in 79 male and 86 female patients. The mean age was 43.41 ± 18.59 for male patients and 40.06 ± 15.91 for female patients. Although benign salivary gland tumors are usually more common than the malignant counterpart in previous studies, neoplasms showed an almost equal frequency of benign and malignant tumors in the present study. The frequency of major salivary gland tumors was 15.8%, and that of minor salivary gland tumors was 83%. The mean age of patients with major salivary gland tumors (44.30 years) was slightly higher than patients with minor ones (41.15 years). Pleomorphic adenoma was the most common histologic type of benign tumor identified, whereas mucoepidermoid was the most common malignant tumor. In contrast to some previous studies that have been reported parotid gland as the most common site for salivary tumors, in the current study, the palate was the most frequent location for salivary gland tumors and tumors have a propensity to occur at the palate than any other sites. Therefore, any lesion arising from the palate should be considered as a possible salivary gland tumor.