Systemic therapies for salivary gland carcinomas: an overview of published clinical trials

• Published in: Medicina oral, patología oral y cirugía bucal patología oral y cirugía bucal, 2024-03, Vol.29 (2), p.e280-e287
• Main Authors: Silva, L-C, Pérez-de-Oliveira, M-E, Pedroso, C-M, Leite, A-A, Santos-Silva, A-R, Lopes, M-A, Junior, G-D, Martins, M-D, Wagner, V-P, Kowalski, L-P, Squarize, C-H, Castilho, R-M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic - drug therapy; Databases, Factual; Humans; Review; Salivary Gland Neoplasms - drug therapy; Salivary Glands
• ISSN: 1698-6946; 1698-4447; 1698-6946
• DOI: 10.4317/medoral.26264

There is no consensus about effective systemic therapy for salivary gland carcinomas (sgcs). Our aim was summarized the clinical trials assessing the systemic therapies (ST) on sgcs. Electronic searches were carried out through MEDLINE/pubmed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases, and gray literature. Seventeen different drugs were evaluated, and the most frequent histological subtype was adenoid cystic carcinoma (n=195, 45.5%). Stable disease, observed in 11 ST, achieved the highest rate in adenoid cystic carcinoma treated with sunitinib. The highest complete (11.1%) and partial response (30.5%) rates were seen in androgen receptor-positive tumors treated with leuprorelin acetate. Despite all the advances in this field, there is yet no effective evidence-based regimen of ST, with all the clinical trials identified showing low rates of complete and partial responses. Further, translational studies are urgently required to characterize molecular targets and effective ST.