Surgical Outcomes of Parotid Cancer: A 10-Year Experience.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate the treatment outcomes of malignant parotid tumors. This investigation is to report our experience with the management of patients with malignant parotid tumors that were treated with combinations of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Method: From January 1999 to December 2008, 126 patients with primary parotid cancer were treated. Data including age, sex, histologic findings, tumor stage, surgery type, complications, and prognosis were collected retrospectively from medical charts. Results: Their mean age was 55.4 years (range, 15-96 years). Mean follow-up was 29.7 months. Thirty three patients were stage I, 40 stage II, 30 stage III, 23 stage IVA. Fifteen patients had recurrences: 6 patients had local, 2 had locoregional, and 1 had regional failure, 6 had distant metastasis. The most common malignant tumor was mucoepidermoid carcinoma (38, 29.5%). Sixty-one patients underwent superficial, 43 had total, and 22 had radical parotidecomy. Postoperative radiotherapy was done in 57 of 126 cases (45.2%) on the basis of the histologic findings, tumor dimensions, amount of surgery, and extent of cervical metastasis. The disease-specific survival rate for malignant tumor was 97% for stage I, 81% for stage II, 56% for stage III, and 15% for stage IV. The most common complication was transient facial palsy (20, 14.7%). Conclusion: Our experience allows us to confirm the results of the literature in the treatment of parotid cancers. In our study, the patients with high disease stage and tumor grade have a bad prognosis with the statistical significance.