Epidemiologic Characteristics of Salivary Gland Tumors in an Iranian Population

Background: Salivary gland tumors include a wide variety of benign and malignant tumors in the oral and maxillofacial region. Although these tumors are not common, they are not rare. The prevalence of these tumors varies with regard to age, gender, and their location in the body. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the frequency of benign and malignant salivary gland tumors in patients referred to three referral hospitals in Tehran, Iran. Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study examined the demographic and pathologic records of the patients with salivary gland tumors submitted to the Department of Pathology of Amir Alam, Loghman Hakim, and Shohada Hospitals from 2005 to 2016. In this study, the histological variants of salivary gland tumors and clinical parameters such as age, gender, and the location of the tumor were examined. The clinical data were analyzed using SPSS software version 21. Results: Of 137632 patient records, 1180 cases were salivary gland tumors. Pleomorphic adenoma in 794 cases (67.3%) and adenoid cystic carcinoma in 109 cases (9.2%) were the most common tumors, respectively. Salivary gland tumors were more common in males, and the participants’ mean age was 42.86 ± 16.5 years. The most common site was parotid and minor salivary glands, with 937 (79.4%) and 137 (12%) cases, respectively. Conclusions: In this study, the most common benign tumor was pleomorphic adenoma in the parotid gland, and the most common malignant tumor was adenoid cystic carcinoma in the major salivary glands. Furthermore, benign tumors were more frequent than malignant tumors.