LXXVI Mixed Tumors of Major Salivary Glands: Prognostic Role of Capsular Structure

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Abstract
To ascertain whether grading the malignancy of mixed tumors could be based on the conditions of the encapsulation, an analysis was made of 1,102 tumors of the parotid or submandibular gland (1,019 patients). After a new histologic examination and reclassi-fication, 681 of the 1,019 cases could be denoted as true mixed tumors. Totally 420 of them could be followed up for more than 5 years. In the clinical follow-up examination, the material was classified according to the capsular structures whose prognostic implications were to be studied. It was found that the material could be divided, on the basis of the relation between tumor tissue, capsule and surrounding tissue, into 2 distinct groups. One, benign group comprised 661 mixed tumors without infiltrative destructive growth (about 97%). The other, malignant group contained only 20 mixed tumors with infiltrative destructive growth (about 3%). It is concluded that a mixed tumor, irrespective of its conditions of encapsulation, is always benign, except in the rare cases in which infiltrative destructive growth is demonstrable.