Minor salivary gland tumors: A retrospective review of cases in a single centre of south Italy.

Objective: Tumors of the minor salivary glands (TMSGs) are rare with heterogeneous behavior despite their low frequency. This study aimed to investigate their distribution characteristics in a single centre of south Italy during the last 10 years and to compare them with similar studies done elsewhere.

Methods: A retrospective study of TMSGs was performed in 110 patients. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25, Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to find the survival and the outcome hazard ratio was calculated for each variable using Cox regression.

Results: 110 patients with TMSGs (55 female ad 55 male, median age 61 years) was examined, including 34 benign and 76 malignant lesions. The palate was the most commonly affected site (41.81 %) in both benign and malignant tumors and the most frequent histological type was respectively pleomorphic adenoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma. Overall survival at 5 years was estimated at 92 %, with statistically significant values for histological high risk and pathological TNM (p value 0.048 and 0.032). Recurrence free survival at 5 years is equal to 82 %.

Conclusions: TMSGs have good overall survival despite recurrences. The most significant predictors of outcome are pathological stage and histological risk group.