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Mucoepidermoid carcinomas (MEC) make up 32% of the heterogeneous cases of malignant epithelial neoplasm of salivary glands observed in our Department. From 1980 to 1990, 270 patients with salivary gland tumefaction, which had previously been treated surgically, were studies. Thirty-four proved to be cases of malignant epithelial neoplasms while 12 oh these 34 were MEC. The biological behaviour of MEC appears to be closely linked to histological grading: a tumor with a low grading has good prognosis while in the case of tumors with a high grading there is a rapid development of local as well as distant metastases. At appears that, with regard to malignancy, localization is an important factors as well submandibular neoplasms are more aggressive the other cancers, probably because they attack periglandular tissue so promptly.

The authors report a pathological study of functional neck dissection performed on 145 N0 laryngeal carcinoma patients from 1982 to 1988. The incidence of occult latero-cervical metastases in N0 was evaluated in relation to site and extension of the primitive tumor. A total of 108 supraglottic, 25 glottic and 12 transglottic tumors were observed. Among the cases treated the incidence of occult metastases was 28.3% while capsular rupture accounted for 3.4%. Diagnostic error, calculated on the number of neck dissections, was 20.2%. A greater incidence of occult metastases was found in supraglottic tumors (29.6%) than in either glottic (24%) or transglottic (25%) tumors. Furthermore, incidence of occult metastases proved proportional to the extension of the primitive tumor. There was a single metastases in 35 cases while only 6 cases proved multiple. Some final considerations are given on the importance of performing precautionary functional neck dissection in N0 laryngeal cancer.