Purpose: We sought to determine survival and factors affecting survival for patients with cancer of the submandibular gland.
Methods: All cases of surgically treated cancer of the submandibular gland were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database for the time period 1988 to 1998. After tabulation of demographic, tumor-specific, and survival data, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was conducted according to histopathologic results. Cox regression analysis stratified for histopathology was conducted to determine factors that influenced survival.
Results: A total of 370 cases of submandibular gland cancer were analyzed. Adenoid cystic carcinoma accounted for 42.2% of cases followed by mucoepidermoid carcinoma (22.2%). Overall mean, median, and 5-year survival times and rate were 82 months, 97 months, and 59.7% for the entire cohort, respectively. Adenoid cystic carcinoma exhibited the best mean survival (99 months), whereas squamous cell carcinoma exhibited the poorest mean survival (52 months). Younger age, decreased tumor grade, and radiation therapy were found to improve survival (P <.001,.005, and.015, respectively). Gender, tumor size, extraglandular extension, and nodal positivity did not statistically influence survival.
Conclusions: Significantly different survival can be expected depending on individual tumor histopathology in submandibular gland cancer. Tumor grade and radiation therapy have important effects on prognosis.