There are many options for salivary gland cancer treatment. You may feel overwhelmed as you explore them.
This guide will help you better understand your options and get ready to talk with your doctors. You’ll have the information you need to make the best decisions for your care together.
Your care team includes doctors, nurses, and other experts in salivary gland cancer. MSK’s salivary gland cancer experts will make a treatment plan just for you.
Your salivary gland cancer treatment plan will target the type and stage of salivary gland cancer you have. We base your treatment on the latest research. You may have a few therapies used together for the best treatment results.
Your MSK care team will talk with you about the best therapies for you. You may have 1 of these treatments, or a few treatments together.
Treatment for salivary gland cancer can include:
Most people with salivary gland cancer have surgery to remove the cancer. The type of surgery depends on the type of salivary gland cancer you have and its location, size, and stage.
Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells. We use radiation therapy to treat people with more aggressive types of salivary gland cancer, most often after surgery.
Chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy are called systemic therapies. Treatments are given by mouth, intravenous (IV) infusion, or injection (shot). They spread throughout the body to treat cancer.
We care for every person with kindness, warmth, and respect.
Your care team includes doctors, nurses, and other experts who focus on salivary gland cancer. They work together using the latest science and research to create your care plan. It will focus on what matters most to you, and what’s best for your type and stage of salivary gland cancer.
To better understand what is causing the tumor to grow, we may do genomic testing on the tumor. This genetic information could help us offer a targeted treatment for the type of salivary gland cancer you have.
At MSK, we take care of the person, not just the cancer. We offer support and resources to help you and your caregivers during and after treatment.
Your care plan may include nutrition advice, physical therapy, exercise, and mental health support. Our rehabilitation experts help you manage the side effects of salivary gland cancer and its treatments.
Head and neck medical oncologist Dr. Anuja Kriplani treats people with salivary gland tumors at MSK in Westchester and New Jersey.
Many people prefer to get cancer treatment closer to home. MSK provides excellent cancer care on Long Island and in locations in Westchester County, New Jersey, and New York City. You can meet with your surgeon and have chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and genetic testing.
Talk with an MSK Care Advisor. We're here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
At MSK, all members of your care team will review your case. They’ll talk with you about which treatments are best for you.
Most salivary gland tumors start in the parotid glands. Tumors can also form in the other salivary glands, such as the submandibular, sublingual, and minor salivary glands.
Your care team may offer you a few salivary gland treatment options. They’re based on your symptoms, any other health issues, and the cancer’s:
We assess all these things and then find the best treatment choice for you.
Head and neck surgeon Dr. Valeria Silva Merea during surgery at MSK in Manhattan.
For most people with salivary gland cancer, surgery is the main option. Your surgeon will talk with you about your options and help you to get ready. They’ll explain what kind of surgery may be best for you.
Surgeons may be able to use minimally invasive methods that:
Surgery may sometimes be used along with other therapies.
Learn more about the types of salivary gland cancer surgery at MSK.
Surgery can also be an option to treat cancer in your minor salivary glands. Minor salivary gland cancer can start in your:
Surgeons may remove nearby tissue with the cancer to lower the chance of cancer coming back.
The type of surgery depends on the cancer’s size and location.
Your facial nerve controls your facial movement, such as smiling. The lingual nerve lets your tongue feel. The hypoglossal nerve lets the part of your tongue move that helps with speech and swallowing.
Harm to your lingual and hypoglossal nerves can affect how you taste and speak. We’re experts in protecting these structures during surgery to limit side effects.
Radiation therapy uses very precise high-energy beams to kill cancer cells. Radiation oncologists are cancer doctors with special training in using radiation to treat cancer. Radiation therapy works very well on head and neck tumors, including salivary gland tumors.
MSK’s radiation experts do everything possible to limit healthy tissue’s exposure to radiation. They use the most precise methods to deliver powerful doses of radiation right to the tumor.
Sometimes we can use methods that lower the number of treatments you’ll need. This can raise the chances of controlling and curing the cancer.
Radiation therapy aims to control or kill off cancer cells with as few side effects as possible.
Your doctor may recommend chemotherapy as part of your radiation therapy. When you have chemotherapy and radiation at the same time, it’s called chemoradiation. It may help the tumor respond better to treatment.
We use radiation therapy:
We use advanced radiation therapy methods such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) or proton therapy to:
Systemic therapies are drugs that travel through the body to kill cancer cells. Systemic therapies for salivary gland cancer largely include targeted therapy, immunotherapy, and chemotherapy.
You may have neoadjuvant (NEE-oh-A-joo-vant) therapy, depending on the tumor type and tests on the tumor tissue. Neoadjuvant therapy is treatment you get before salivary cancer surgery. This treatment shrinks tumors so they’re easier to remove during surgery.
You may have adjuvant (A-joo-vant) therapy, which is treatment you get after salivary gland cancer surgery or radiation therapy. It’s used to kill any cancer cells that may be left. Adjuvant therapy can lower the risk of salivary gland cancer coming back or spreading.
Here are some systemic therapies for salivary gland cancer:
Chemo or immunotherapy before surgery can shrink tumors and make them easier to remove with surgery.
Thomas Ow:
The most exciting developments in the field really revolve around using chemotherapies and
immunotherapies pre-operatively to shrink tumors, make things smaller, so that when we do
surgery, the surgeries are much less complex. And we're finding that in many cases for many
different kinds of cancer, that often results in better survival outcomes as well.
At MSK, every specialty is at the forefront and when we work together to make a treatment
plan for each patient, they can be assured that they're getting the most advanced care from the
entire team.
Chemotherapy (chemo) is a treatment that uses medicine to stop or slow cancer cells from growing. Chemo puts medicines that target cancer cells into your vein.
Chemotherapy is not a common therapy for salivary gland cancer. Sometimes chemotherapy is used for advanced salivary gland cancer that has spread to distant organs. It may shrink a tumor, but most likely will not cure the cancer.
Chemoradiation may be used to treat salivary gland cancer, but not often. Chemoradiation is when chemotherapy is given along with radiation.
Targeted therapies are cancer treatments that target a tumor’s gene changes (mutations or variants). It’s a personal treatment plan just for the type of cancer you have. These medicines often are given by mouth in pill form, or into your vein through an IV.
Treatments target:
Hormone therapy stops or slows the growth of cancer by blocking the hormones cancer cells need to grow.
Androgen is a male reproductive hormone. Some salivary gland cancers make a protein called an androgen receptor. Your body's hormones can attach to these receptors, making cancer cells grow. Hormone therapy is medicine that attaches to the androgen receptor to stop salivary gland cancer from growing.
Hormone therapy treats advanced or metastatic salivary gland cancer that has spread. Hormone therapy is used if genomic tests show the tumor has androgen receptors.
Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment that boosts your immune system’s natural ability to fight cancer. Your immune system will then attack cancer cells, much the same way it attacks bacteria or viruses.
This medicine most often is given through an IV into your vein.
Checkpoint inhibitors are a type of cancer immunotherapy. Checkpoint inhibitors work by releasing a natural brake on your immune system. It lets immune cells called T cells find and attack tumors.
Some salivary gland cancers make a protein called PD-L1.
PD-L1 can step on an immune cell’s brakes and shut down the immune system’s response to cancer. Immunotherapy drug such as pembrolizumab, nivolumab, or cemiplimab target PD-L1 so the immune system can do its job.
MSK uses immunotherapy to treat some advanced (stage 3 or 4 salivary) salivary gland cancers. We may do this after other treatments did not work.
MSK offers genetic testing that looks for the most common mutations linked to salivary gland cancer. MSK-IMPACT ® is a testing tool only offered at MSK. It finds genetic changes and other tumor traits that other tests can miss. We routinely test for changes in more than 500 genes.
A tumor genetic profiling test also is called genomic testing, molecular profiling, or next-generation sequencing. The test uses a sample taken from a tumor. We also consider sending blood samples as well, to learn more about the tumor’s genes.
At MSK, broad genetic testing of the tumor is a common part of how we diagnose salivary gland cancer. We’re one of only a few cancer centers in the world to profile salivary gland tumors as part of cancer treatment.
Genomic testing tells us which genetic changes (mutations or variants) caused the salivary gland cancer and made the cancer grow. The test results may let us target those genes for treatment.
If we know which mutations you have, we know which treatments will work best on your tumor. We test for the gene NTRK in salivary gland tumors.
Almost all of these genetic changes are only in cancer cells, not in normal cells. They cannot be passed on to your children.
The health of your body and mind matter to us after treatment, too. MSK's follow-up care and support programs help you and your loved ones cope with cancer.
When you learn you have salivary gland cancer, you’ll probably have many questions for your cancer doctor at your first visit. Talking about treatment options with your doctors can help you feel confident when making decisions about your care.
Your care team may talk with you about joining a salivary gland cancer clinical trial.
Anyone can join a clinical trial from the very start of treatment, if there’s one that’s right for you.
Researchers follow strict rules to make sure all clinical trials are safe. The MSK research team will answer your questions and help you get ready for the trial. We follow your progress and keep you safe every step of the way.
MSK strongly encourages people from all races, genders, ages, and backgrounds to join clinical trials. It’s very important for research studies to include people from many backgrounds. It’s how our researchers can learn if a new treatment works for everyone, not just one group of people.
Clinical trials are research studies to test new treatments, procedures, or devices to see how well they work. Every cancer treatment given to a person was first tested in a clinical trial.
Clinical trials can help us learn about new salivary gland cancer drugs, such as:
Medical oncologist Dr. Anna Varghese explains how clinical trials give MSK patients access to the latest cancer treatments and discoveries.
Many patients will ask us, “Why should I participate in a clinical trial?”
The reason I work at a place like Memorial Sloan Kettering is I'm really hopeful clinical trials will help us to learn more how to take better care of you, and many other patients with cancer as well.
As an academic medical center, we have our best scientists and our best researchers, together with our clinical teams and our pharmacists and our nurses and the doctors, all with one focus of trying to provide you with the best care that we can.
Clinical trials often give us access to some of the newest science, and the newest medications, and the newest technologies, that are really at the cutting edge of cancer treatments – and our hope is to bring that to you and to more patients. And clinical trials are the ways that we can do that.
MSK has one of the country’s largest cancer clinical trials programs. At each MSK site, our researchers may screen and match you to a clinical trial best for your treatment. You may have access to new treatments not yet available at most hospitals.
If you join a clinical trial, you may be able to try new drugs to treat your type of salivary gland cancer. Our patients may get a new treatment at MSK years before it’s offered at most other places.
Here are some ways enrolling in a clinical trial can help you get the best treatment:
sometimes years before they’re available to everyone.
from your expert care team.
for treatments you get during a clinical trial.
At MSK, your care is always a team effort. Our care teams combine the skill and experience of many kinds of salivary gland cancer experts. They work together to give you the best cancer treatment.
Head and neck surgeon Dr. Snehal Patel’s care team, with RN Brianna McDonald (left), physician assistant Annie Chang, Dr. Patel, office coordinator Jennifer Savery, and RN Sadie Mercer.
MSK has Magnet® designation for our nurses’ excellent patient care, strong leadership, and a culture that values constant improvement. Only about 1 out of every 10 hospitals in the country have Magnet status. It’s one of the highest honors a hospital can earn for nursing excellence.
Your care team has special training in how to diagnose and treat salivary gland cancer. Their goal is to support you during and after treatment for salivary gland cancer.
We take care of the person, not just the cancer. Our social workers are here to help you and your family with the emotional, social, and physical effects of cancer.
Your care team will include doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers who are experts in salivary gland cancer. They include:
Medical oncologist Dr. Devika Rao shares tips on what to expect during your first visit at MSK, and how to get ready.
We want to ensure your first visit is as productive and supportive as possible. Here are some tips on how you can best prepare.
Your team meets with a panel of experts who review and talk about your diagnosis. They discuss new ideas and the latest research. This expert panel then works together to choose your treatment plan.
A head and neck surgeon is a doctor with special training in surgery on the head and neck. This includes the tonsils, tongue, mouth, lips, larynx, nose, sinuses, salivary glands, and thyroid gland.
A radiation oncologist is a cancer doctor with special training in using radiation therapy (RT) to treat cancer.
A head and neck medical oncologist is a cancer doctor who specializes in head and neck cancers. This includes cancers of the tonsils, tongue, mouth, lips, larynx, nose, sinuses, salivary glands, and thyroid gland.
A dental oncologist is a general dentist with special training in managing oral problems from cancer, treating cancer, or both.
A maxillofacial (max-ill-o-FAY-shul) prosthodontist (pros-thoh-DON-tist) has special training in treating problems of the face, jaw, and nearby soft tissue. They’re trained in making a prothesis (pros-THEE-sis), an artificial (man-made) piece that replaces a body part. It’s also called a prosthetic.
An oral and maxillofacial (max-ill-o-FAY-shul) surgeon is a doctor with special training in treating many problems and injuries that affect the head, neck, mouth, jaw, and face.
An endocrinologist (EN-doh-krih-NAH-loh-jist) is a doctor with special training in endocrine problems. These disorders affect glands and organs that make hormones, and include diabetes, infertility, and thyroid, adrenal, and pituitary gland problems.
A neurosurgeon is a doctor with special training in surgery on the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord or spine, and nerves).
A plastic and reconstructive surgeon is a doctor with special training in cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. These procedures restore function and appearance.
A radiologist is a doctor with special training in using imaging to diagnose and treat disease. Imaging includes X-rays, sonography, ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
A pathologist is a doctor who uses a microscope to make a diagnosis from cell and tissue samples. They analyze the samples to learn more about a health issue, such as cancer.
A social worker is a healthcare provider with special training in helping people cope with problems in their lives. They support your emotional health by providing counseling and practical help.
Talk with an MSK Care Advisor. We're here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Speech pathologist James Pinto helps with speech, voice, and swallowing problems after salivary gland treatment.
Cancer treatment affects your body and emotions. The experience is not the same for everyone. We’ll support you during your treatment.
But you’re also a person with a life beyond cancer. We want to help you get back to it. That’s why we have many programs and services to support you and your loved ones.
You can connect with other people going through cancer treatment in our virtual support groups, led by a social worker.
Or, you may need help with side effects of treatment. We have experts with special training in treating pain.
Your caregivers are a very important part of your care team. They need support, too. We have a Caregivers Clinic to help your loved ones cope with cancer.
Salivary gland cancer and its treatment can change the way you speak and swallow. Our speech therapists help manage side effects including changes in:
Our rehab experts work with you after your diagnosis and for as long as needed. They make a treatment plan just for you.
Our Integrative Medicine and Wellness Service offers complementary, natural, and holistic treatments. They include acupuncture, meditation, massage therapy, yoga, and exercise.
You may want support to cope with side effects of cancer treatment. These may include pain, fatigue (feeling very tired), nerve problems, nausea, insomnia, and stress.
Without using prescription drugs, integrative therapies can help improve and control side effects of cancer treatment.
MSK integrative medicine services are available in New York City, New Jersey, Westchester, and on Long Island.
Pain management is an important part of cancer care. MSK was the first cancer center in the country to have a service just for treating pain in people with cancer.
Our pain experts will help relieve or manage pain after surgery. They can help while you’re still in the hospital, and after you’re home.
We have experts who manage the symptoms and side effects of cancer treatment, such as nausea during chemotherapy.
We offer counseling and support to help you manage anxiety, depression, anger, or loneliness. There are individual and group counseling sessions, both in person and through telemedicine visits. Counseling is open to you and your family, separately or together.
We also run support groups and programs if you want to talk with other people going through a similar experience. Our social workers can offer information about how to talk about your diagnosis with family members, work colleagues, and friends.
Cancer treatment can affect your digestion (how your body breaks down the food you eat). It can change your taste, how you eat, and how hungry you are.
Our clinical dietitian nutritionists can help with:
It’s never too late to quit smoking and using tobacco. Using tobacco products is a possible risk factor for salivary cancer.
Our Tobacco Treatment Program has experts who can help you quit smoking. It’s open to people who never had cancer or a disease linked to tobacco.
It also welcomes anyone who has cancer, and cancer survivors. Our program offers treatment options to help you quit, such as counseling and medicine.
MSK is a place where people of all genders and sexual orientations feel welcome and treated with respect. Our LGBTQI+ Cancer Care Program gives you the support you need during cancer care. It’s for LGBTQI+ people getting screened or treated at MSK, or in our survivorship program.
We believe cancer care needs to be as convenient as possible. We have salivary gland cancer treatment locations in New York City, Westchester, on Long Island, and in New Jersey.
At our locations, you can meet with your care team and get your salivary gland cancer treatment. You may be able to have chemotherapy or radiation therapy or join a clinical trial.
MSK brings its expert care closer to you so you can get back home to what matters most.
We’ll guide you about where you can go for check-ups, procedures, or treatments, based on your diagnosis and treatments.
