Chemotherapy

If you have a salivary gland tumor, your doctor may recommend chemotherapy, or treatment with anti-cancer drugs. These medicines are distributed throughout the body through the bloodstream. They can help kill cancer cells that may have spread to other areas of the body, called metastases.

Doctors do not often use chemotherapy for salivary gland tumors because the drugs currently available do not cure the disease. But chemotherapy may help shrink the tumors in some cases, control tumors that surgery and radiation did not control, and treat metastases. New drugs are becoming available all the time, and future agents may be more effective in treating salivary gland cancers. Your doctor can talk with you about whether chemotherapy might be useful in your situation.

Seattle Cancer Care Alliance patients who have salivary gland tumors receive chemotherapy at the SCCA clinic near Lake Union.