UNCOMMON SALIVARY GLAND TUMORS: A CASE SERIES

Abstract

Salivary gland tumors are one of the rare entities having the annual incidence rate of 0.5 to 2 per 100,000 persons[7]. Majority of them are benign, only 20% cases are malignant. They usually present as painless mass in the oral cavity or close to their anatomical location. The main challenge is to differentiate between the benign and the malignant ones. Thus, various imaging modalities are used. Investigations such as ne needle aspiration cytology and MRI scans provide some useful information, but most cases will require tissue diagnosis to come to a denitive conclusion. Hence, biopsy or histopathological study of the surgically excised tissue is the gold standard for diagnosis. Benign tumour and early low-grade malignancies can be adequately treated with surgery alone, while more advanced and high-grade tumour with regional lymph node metastasis will require postoperative radiotherapy[11]. The role of chemotherapy remains largely palliative. In this article, we have presented a series of cases with uncommon tumors involving the various salivary glands.