A review of parotid pleomorphic adenomas in the West Midlands Region 1977-1986

The aim of this study was to review the management of parotid pleomorphic adenomas in the West Midlands Regional Health Authority. The study population consisted of all cases of pleomorphic adenomas arising in the parotid and registered with the West Midlands Regional Cancer Registry between 1 January 1977 and 31 December 1986. Variables included in the analysis were: age, sex, year of diagnosis, treatment centre, consultant specialty, operative procedure, completeness of tumour resection and treatment modality. The main findings were that the choice of operative procedure and the use of adjuvant radiotherapy varied significantly between treatment centres and could not be explained by intraregional variation in the distribution of patient and disease related factors; less than one-third of patients in this series were managed according to accepted treatment protocols.