Histopathologic Profile of Salivary Gland Tumors among Specimens from a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Introduction: Salivary gland tumors are rare, comprising about 3% of all head and neck neoplasms. About 80% of the tumors are in parotids, 10% in submandibular glands and the remainders are distributed in sublingual and minor salivary glands. This study was conducted to evaluate the relative frequencies, types, site of distribution and the histopathological features of salivary gland tumors.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Manipal College of Medical Sciences, Pokhara from January 2011 to December 2019. Ethical approval was taken from the institutional review committee of Manipal College of Medical Sciences (Ref: 314). Convenient sampling was done among specimen. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21.

Results: Among the 130 specimens, the patients’ age ranged from 6 to 78 years with a mean age of 37.26 years for benign tumors and 48.45 years for malignant tumors. There was female predominance with a male to female ratio of 1:1.36. There were 98 cases of benign tumors, commonest being pleomorphic adenoma with 82 (83.67%) cases which was noticed more frequently in fourth decade of life. Among the 32 malignant tumors, mucoepidermoid carcinoma was the commonest tumor 20 (62.5%), followed by adenoid cystic carcinoma 7 (23.33%).

Conclusions: Benign salivary gland tumors were more common than malignant tumors and the most common site of location was the parotid for both the benign and malignant tumors. Female outnumbered the male population in benign tumors whereas males were slightly more than females in malignant tumors. This study corroborated well with other previously published studies.