Survival rate of salivary gland cancer sharply drops when it metastasizes: research

SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Yonhap) -- The survival rate of rare but deadly salivary gland cancer sharply decreases when it metastasizes to the lungs or bones, a research paper showed Monday.

According to the research conducted by a team of medical doctors at Samsung Medical Center on 124 patients, the five-year survival rate of the cancer drops to 21 percent when it spreads to other parts of the body.

The survival rate usually hovers above 90 percent if the cancer is found at the earliest stages.

"The main characteristic of salivary gland cancer is that the survival rate is about 90 percent when found at an early stage and that the result of the treatment is very good but the prognosis is very bad when caught later," said Jung Han-shin, one of the medical doctors who conducted the research.

Salivary gland cancer is a cancer that starts in one of the salivary glands and is very rare, being found only in 1.4 out of 100,000 people.

The research was published in the latest edition of the journal BMC Cancer.

khj@yna.co.kr
(END)