Sublingual salivary gland tumors: clinicopathologic study of six cases.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to assess the clinical and histologic features of 6 cases of sublingual salivary gland tumors treated in a single institution.

STUDY

DESIGN

The clinical data were obtained from the medical records, and the histopathologic slides were reviewed.

RESULTS

Four cases were adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) and 2 were mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC). Most cases were clinically staged as T3N0M0. Histologically, 3 cases of ACC were of the cribriform subtype and 1 was tubular. One MEC was classified as intermediate and 1 as high grade of malignancy. After surgical treatment, 3 patients (2 MEC and 1 ACC) did not show tumoral recurrence after a mean time of 162 months of follow-up (ranging from 120 to 216 months).

CONCLUSIONS

Sublingual salivary gland tumors are very rare and most are malignant; in our series, 3 cases of ACC had poor prognosis but the patients with MEC were considered cured of the disease.