Certainties, Doubts, and Myths in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Salivary Gland Tumors of the Head and Neck

Salivary gland tumors, although relatively rare, exhibit a wide histological variety. The most modern classifications list over 30 histotypes, both benign and malignant, with widely varying morphological, epidemiological, and clinical characteristics, sometimes even within the same tumor type based on grading. The consequence of these characteristics is that regarding the diagnosis and treatment of salivary gland tumors, there have been, and still are, some certainties, many uncertainties, and some myths not supported by irrefutable studies, but which are cited, repeated, and taken for granted from one article to the next. The purpose of this narrative review is to analyze the most important and controversial opinions regarding the diagnosis and treatment of salivary gland tumors of the head and neck, and, in particular, those of the most frequent and/or problematic histological types, both malignant and benign. To this end, approximately one hundred historical and recent studies on these topics were analyzed.