Objectives: To compare survival outcomes between surgery-based salvage and non-surgical management in patients with locoregional recurrent salivary gland carcinoma (RSGC), and to explore whether surgery-based salvage is associated with more favorable outcomes in appropriately selected patients. Methods:A search was performed in MEDLINE (Ovid), EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library.Observational studies were included that reported comparative outcomes for surgery-based salvage (resection ± adjuvant therapy) versus non-surgical management (re-irradiation, brachytherapy, systemic therapy, or palliative treatment) in locoregional recurrent disease. Conclusion:Available comparative observational evidence suggests that surgery-based salvage may be associated with more favorable survival outcomes in appropriately selected patients with locoregional RSGC.However, the evidence base is small, retrospective, and clinically heterogeneous; therefore, these findings should be interpreted as exploratory rather than confirmatory, and treatment decisions should be individualized within a multidisciplinary approach.
Huh et al. (Fri,) studied this question.