Histopathological Diversity in Parotidectomy Materials in Turkish Population: Clinicopathologic Analysis and Demographic Features of 136 Cases in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background: Salivary gland tumours, which account for approximately 3% of head-neck cancers, are aheterogeneous group and thus it is difficult to identify their epidemiological characteristics. The aim of this studyis to determine demographic features and histopathologic distribution of parotid neoplasms in a large sample fromTurkey. Materials and
Methods: This study was conducted retrospectively on 136 parotidectomy materials fromoperations between May 2009-May 2013. Age, gender, tumor diameter, histopathological diagnosis and surgicalmargin status were recorded.
Results: The benign cases were 112 (82.4%), while the malignancies were 24 (17.6%).The accuracy rate of FNAC was 91%. There were 46 (33.8%) male and 90 (66.2%) female patients. Female/male ratio (M/F=0.5) was two, the Warthin (WT) tumor being more apparent in males (p<0.05). Pleomorphicadenoma (PA) was detected most frequently among benign pathologies at 61.6% (69/112), while the WarthinTumor (WT) was detected as the second most frequent tumor at 20.5% (23/112). Mucoepidermoid carcinoma(MEC) and carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma (Ca ex PA) were detected at equal frequency at 20.8% (5/24)among malign tumors. These were followed by acinic cell carcinoma at 16.7% (4/24). While the surgical marginwas positive in ten patients with malignant tumors (41.7%), all of the benign tumors were negative (p<0.01).No significant difference was detected in the age-gender of patients, tumor size and distribution of sites amongbenign and malignant groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Pleomorphic adenoma is the most frequently reportedbenign tumor almost in all global literature. Yet, the distribution of malignant tumors displays geographicaldifferences. Based on these data, we believe that our findings will provide a significant contribution to futureepidemiological studies. We think that it will be beneficial to generate awareness on parotid tumors and ensurea fight against smoking as with all head-neck cancers.