Outcome of Surgery and Radiotherapy for Major Salivary Gland Carcinoma

Salivary gland cancers are uncommon malignancies of the head and neck region. Their site of origin can be major (parotid, submandibular and sublingual) or minor salivary gland (palate, nasal cavity, paranasal sinuses, trachea and lacrimal gland). Of all the salivary gland neoplasms, 85% are benign and 15% are malignant. Salivary gland malignancies comprise 3-6% of all head and neck cancers (Pinkston and Cole, 1999; Jones et al., 2008). It constitutes 0.77% of male and 0.57% of female cancers in India (Raina et al., 2003). Most cancers arise from parotid gland. As a general rule in clinical practice, the smaller the salivary gland, more are the chances of malignancy. In the parotid glands, 20-25% of the tumors are malignant. This rises to 40% for the submandibular glands, and more than 90% of sublingual gland tumors are malignant (To et al., 2012).These cancers have varying histology and diverse biologic behaviours. The most