Predictors of prognosis and overall survival in pediatric mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands: A systematic review

This systematic review aimed to assess the impact of different clinicopathological parameters on the prognosis and survival of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands in the pediatric population. It was conducted according to the recommendations of PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and MetaAnalysis statement). All case reports, case series and observational studies were searched from the following databases: Medline (By PubMed), Web of Science, Scopus and Embase. Cases other than salivary gland mucoepidermoid carcinoma, cases with less than one-year follow-up and articles without any information on recurrence or survival were excluded. Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies by The Joanna Briggs Institute was used for risk of bias assessment. Data was extracted and recorded using Excel spreadsheets. ChiSquare test and Kaplan Meier analysis were used. A total of 697 articles were screened, 42 were retrieved for full text screening and 30 articles were selected. Studies with similar methodologies and outcomes were categorized together. The average risk of bias was low. Data was extracted for 143 cases. Prognostic factors that were associated with poor survival outcomes were male gender, TNM staging, tumor grade, margins, lymphovascular and perineural invasion and choice of treatment. Multivariate analysis from all studies were assimilated to calculate an overall predictive strength of each parameter for prognosis and survival. This review concludes that such clinicopathological parameters are valuable prognostic predictors of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands in pediatric population and are essential for proper treatment planning and post-treatment quality of life.