The role of bronchoscopy and gastroscopy in intraoral minor salivary gland carcinomas at initial staging

Intraoral minor salivary gland carcinomas are rare tumours the incidence, distribution, and prognostic factors of which differ. The prognosis of patients depends on the presence of metastases or synchronous malignant diseases that usually affect the lungs. The incidence of metastases has been reported to be about 9% at the time of primary staging. The aim of this study was to assess the value of bronchoscopy and gastroscopy in the routine staging of minor salivary gland cancers. We retrospectively reviewed the casenotes of 95 patients who had presented with newly diagnosed intraoral minor salivary gland carcinomas. Data were collected about abnormalities detected during endoscopic screening; a biopsy was taken if reasonable and if the resulting diagnosis influenced the planned treatment. Thirty-eight patients with abnormalities were detected (40%); 31 diagnoses were confirmed by bronchoscopy and 44 by gastroscopy. Bronchoscopy confirmed a total of 6 malignancies: 4 were synchronous carcinomas of the lung and 2 metastases of the primary tumour. One oesophageal cancer was detected by gastroscopy. The proposed treatment was affected in five of these seven. For therapeutic, diagnostic, and prognostic reasons bronchoscopy and gastroscopy should be included routinely into staging of intraoral minor salivary gland carcinomas.