Malignant Tumours of the Submandibular Gland

Abstract

A histological reclassification of 187 primary tumours in the subman-dibular gland showed a malignant type of tumour in 62 cases. A long-term clinical follow-up study showed that the malignant submandibular tumours have a poor prognosis as compared to corresponding tumours of the parotid gland. It has been shown that adenoid cystic carcinomas can be classified into low-grade and high-grade malignant types. In rapidly growing tumours (such as epidermoid carcinoma, solid undif-ferentiated carcinoma and the high grade malignant type of adenoid cystic carcinoma) the poor prognosis is already evident from a 5-year follow-up. The present study shows that a much longer follow-up is, on the other hand, necessary to disclose the definite prognosis in the more slowly growing low grade malignant type of adenoid cystic carcinoma. In view of the high incidence of malignant tumours of the submandibular gland there is a great risk that any lump in this region may, actually, be malignant. The importance of the earliest possible radical surgical treatment is stressed.