Introduction: Salivary duct carcinoma is a rare and highly aggressive malignancy arising in the ductal epithelium of the salivary glands. The parotid gland represents the most frequent location.

Materials and methods: The records of patients with histopathological diagnosis of salivary duct carcinoma affecting the parotid gland between 2001 and 2011 were reviewed.

Results: Fifty-six cases of parotid gland carcinomas were diagnosed from January 2001 until March 2011. Sixteen cases were duct carcinomas (29%). One patient was excluded because incomplete data. At the time of diagnosis locoregional lymphatic extension was found in 30% of the cases while the 13% had distant metastases. During the postoperative follow-up two patients presented locoregional recurrences (12%) and 5 (30%) were diagnosed of distant metastases. 7 of the 15 patients (46%) were died as a result of the disease, 6 remain alive with no evidence of disease and two are currently receiving postoperative radiotherapy. Regarding the inmunohistochemical analysis 5 patients (33%) were positive for the Her-2 marker.

Conclusions: Despite the low estimated incidence of the salivary duct carcinoma of the parotid gland, our series, in accordance with other authors, shows a high proportion of this tumour type within the parotid gland malignant neoplasms.