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Background. In the context of the Danish Head and Neck Cancer Group, nationwide material from 1992–2001 was analyzed to study the extent and nature of the disease, evaluate treatment, compare staging systems, and examine prognosis and survival. Methods. Review of 68 consecutive cases: 47 squamous cell carcinoma, 10 basal cell carcinoma, and 11 other histologies. Moody (modified Pittsburgh) stages were T1 (26), T2 (9), T3 (8), T4 (23), Tx (2). Sixty-four patients were treated with curative intent: 24 primary radiotherapy, 18 primary surgery, and 22 combined. Surgery was limited to tumor excision and mastoidectomy and in 1 case temporal bone excision. Results. Twenty-seven of 28 recurrences involved primary site. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed 5-year locoregional control of 48%, disease-specific survival 57%, and overall survival 44%. Conclusion. This nationwide study confirmed that local failure is the main problem, and future improvements should focus on more aggressive local treatment. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A retrospective study of factors of prognostic significance for clinical course and survival was performed using uni- and multivariate analyses in 251 patients with primary salivary gland carcinoma admitted during the period 1958-1992. Univariate analyses indicated that site of primary tumour, histology, clinical stage, presence of node metastases at primary diagnosis, and status of surgical margins were important prognostic factors for cause-specific survival, locoregional control and distant metastases. Multivariate analyses confirmed that histology was important for both locoregional control and cause-specific survival, whereas primary site was only of importance for locoregional control. Presence of node metastases at diagnosis was more important for locoregional control than clinical stage, whereas clinical stage was the most important factor for cause-specific survival. Status of surgical margins was of major importance for both cause-specific survival and locoregional control. Radiotherapy in addition to surgery improved locoregional control only, whereas survival was not affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]