What's your approach to adjuvant therapy for neuroendocrine (small cell) cancer of the parotid gland?

Topics: Head and Neck Cancers • Radiation Oncology

Patient had superficial parotidectomy, with negative margins. No nodes on imaging. Specifically, treat parotid bed alone? Add nodes if N0 on scanning? Dosing? With or without chemo?

Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution

While it is rarely possible for a primary NE cancer to arise in the parotid, the vast majority of these are actually Merkel cell carcinomas (MCC) secondary to a skin primary in the draining zone of the parotid (or pre auricular nodes) in the face/scalp. Even if a primary were to be never detected, w...

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Radiation Oncologist at USC Keck School of Medicine
@Upendra Parvathaneni, what if patient also underw...

Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Community Practice

What to do when the markers show its clearly not a Merkel? Only case reports for true partoid neuroendocrine disease. And what if the patient is inoperable? Chemoradiotherapy and extrapolation (Rx RT dose) from Merkel literature seems reasonable. A very rare entity which one might come across...

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