Malignant sublingual gland tumors: demographics, prognostic factors, and treatment outcomes

Objective. To determine the demographic characteristics, prognostic factors, and optimal treatment modalities of patients diagnosed with malignant primary tumors of the sublingual gland. Materials and Methods. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry contains 210 patients diagnosed with sublingual gland tumors in the SEER database. Kaplan-Meier and multivariate Cox regression analysis were performed on age, sex, race, histologic subtype, stage, and treatment modality. Results. Kaplan-Meier analysis found an overall survival and disease-specific survival at 5 years of 69% and 83%, respectively. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that age, sex, stage, and surgery were predictors of overall survival, whereas stage was a predictor of disease-specific survival. Conclusions. Here we report, to our knowledge, the largest study to date investigating demographic characteristics, prognostic factors, and treatment modalities of patients diagnosed with primary malignant tumors of the sublingual gland. Increased age and stage correlated with decreased survival, whereas female gender and surgical therapy correlated with increased survival in the overall population. Radiation therapy for patients diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma in the sublingual gland was correlated with increased survival.