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Treatment Options for Stage IV Major Salivary Gland Tumors
Source: Salivary Gland Cancer Treatment (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version, National Cancer Institute.
Source updated: May 13, 2025 · Captured 2026-09-09.
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Context: Treatment of Stage IV Major Salivary Gland Cancer
Standard therapy for patients with tumors that have spread to distant sites is not curative.
Treatment options for high-grade stage IV major salivary gland tumors include:
Fast neutron-beam radiation therapy or accelerated hyperfractionated photon-beam schedules have been reported to be more effective than conventional x-ray therapy in the treatment of patients with inoperable, unresectable, or recurrent malignant salivary gland tumors.[1-5]
Aggressive combinations of chemotherapy and radiation (under clinical evaluation).
Patients with stage IV salivary gland cancer and patients with any metastatic lesions should consider enrollment in clinical trials. Their cancer may be responsive to aggressive combinations of chemotherapy and radiation. Patients with any metastatic lesions could consider clinical trials. Chemotherapy using doxorubicin, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, and fluorouracil as single agents or in various combinations is associated with modest response rates.[6-14]
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