Supporting evidence for an active treatment program for advanced salivary gland carcinomas.

The role of systemic chemotherapy in the treatment of salivary gland tumors remains unknown. Because of the infrequent occurrence of these tumors, only a few clinical trials with chemotherapy have been reported in the literature. The current trial presents preliminary results with the combination of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, and cisplatin. These results are viewed in terms of other recently reported data obtained with the same combination. The collected data strongly suggest that salivary gland tumors may be very responsive to chemotherapy.