Prognostic factors in surgically treated malignant salivary gland tumors

•Salivary gland carcinomas have a high risk of recurrence and distant metastasis.•Prognostic factors include UICC stage, grading and vascular invasion.•Evidence-based treatment stratification is required in salivary gland carcinoma.•Locoregional surgical control may not be sufficient.•A proportion of patients may benefit from systemic treatment. To identify prognostic factors for evidence-based risk stratification in malignant salivary gland tumors. This retrospective study identified 162 patients who presented with malignant salivary gland tumors between 2010 and 2020. Final analysis included 91 patients who underwent surgical treatment at our institution and were followed-up for ≥ 1 year. Medical records were reviewed and patients were categorized according to their risk profile. This study included 91 patients (51 males, 40 females, mean age 61 years). The most frequent entities were adenoid cystic carcinoma (n = 13, 14.3%) and mucoepidermoid carcinoma (n = 12, 13.2%). Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated a five-year overall survival (OS) of 66.2% and a recurrence-free survival (RFS) of 50.5%. Age > 60 years (p = 0.011), categorization into high-risk group (p = 0.011), UICC stage (p = 0.020), T stage (p = 0.032), grading (p = 0.045) and vascular invasion (p 60 years (p = 0.014), categorization into high-risk group (p