Chemotherapy of malignant major salivary gland neoplasms: a 25-year review of M. D. Anderson Hospital experience.

From 1950 through 1975, 671 patients with malignant major salivary gland neoplasms were referred to M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute. Thirty-six patients with advanced local or metastatic disease subsequently underwent 62 evaluable trials with a variety of chemotherapeutic agents, either alone or in combination. Six patients achieved a partial response, with a median duration of 3 months. Ten additional patients had stable disease for 2 or more months. Anthracyclines appeared to be the most effective agents in this study, with three partial responses of six evaluable trials. The longest partial response (10 months) occurred in a patient receiving combination chemotherapy plus BCG immunotherapy. Pulmonary metastases were most commonly responsive to chemotherapy. The median intervals from diagnosis to death or to last follow-up and from initiation of chemotherapy to death or to last follow-up were 30 months and 6 months, respectively. Further therapeutic trials are necessary before response rates to single chemotherapeutic agents or combinations can be accurately assessed. In view of the poor prognosis of patients with recurrent disease, postoperative adjuvant studies with chemoimmunotherapy in patients with a high risk of recurrence are planned.