Salivary gland malignancies-highlights of the 2019 ASCO Annual Meeting

Background Due to their comparatively low incidence, salivary gland carcinomas have only been the subject of isolated clinical studies in recent years. In addition, surgery with/without adjuvant radiotherapy is considered standard treatment. Systemic therapies have received little attention and are only used for advanced and distantly metastasized salivary gland malignancies. Objective The contributions with the highest relevance for this year's meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) were to be reviewed. Materials and methods A total of 12 contributions pertaining to clinical studies on salivary gland malignancies were identified, eight of which were classified as relevant for future changes to the therapeutic landscape. Results Three studies dealt with different combinations of a checkpoint blockade, and each showed a low response rate. In addition, studies on targeted therapies depending on the results of a mutation analysis and expression of HER2 or the androgen receptor were presented. Conclusion A favorable response of HER2-positive salivary gland carcinomas to an antibody-drug conjugate could be shown. Furthermore, no convincing data regarding response to programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1)/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitors in advanced salivary gland cancer were presented. Further studies and ideas for new treatment approaches will be needed to improve the therapeutic options for patients with salivary gland carcinoma