Dad newly diagnosed

Hi Paula, so sorry to read about your dad

It's not a common cancer here but there are a few folk and they may still be getting notifications from Macmillan

This 

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/head-neck-cancer-forum/f/new-here-say-hello/295176/salivary-gland-carcinoma-diagnosed

is the most recent thread about salivary gland cancer. You might like to post there as well and you might get a reply more quickly.

Sorry to hear about your Dad i have not come across this type of cancer on here ,i know you must be worried sick ,the doctors will formulate a treatment plan and i am sure they will take your dads age and heart problem into account . They know what they are doing and are very meticulous ,they will do their utmost for your dad .Im afraid you have to put your faith in them completely .

Hello: sorry for your news. Is it cancer of the parotid or is it squamous cell that started in the parotid? Both are quite rare, my husband has squamous cell that we think started in the parotid although the jury is out. He iso my 40 but he’s had a parotidectomy and neck dissection and started chemo radiotherapy tomorrow. Obviously a huge age gap to your dad but happy to share our experiences.

good luck to you all

Sorry to hear of this hop all goes well I'm 63 and in July 2025 I developed a lump to right side of neck had an excision biopsy and then 6 weeks later was told itvwas a squamous cell carcinoma. During these 6 weeks another lump appeared at tail end of the excision scar. After a CT Scan and an MRI Scan I was told within 4 days that it had spread to my neck muscle and my parotid (Saliva gland) and a couple of lymph nodes.

November I had the operation  which was a selective neck dissection to remove the lump  part of my neck muscle and parotidectomy to remove Saliva gland and 2 lymph nodes this included a dermal fat graft from my abdomen to pack out my neck where surgery was performed.

In December I was told that all cancer was removed but recommended I underwent 30 sessions of Radiotherapy to make sure no bits were lingering.

I'm getting there slowly and hope all goes well.for your father.

Click on profile for my long winded story and feel free to ask me any questions

Thankyou for replying everyone....my dad gets a CT scan done this Friday they rang to book it in yesterday ..just waiting for the MRI scan call now.I did ring the Macmillan head and neck team yesterday just to voice my concerns and asks things I wouldn't ask in front of my dad and mum.

We've no idea as yet if the cancer is secondary or primary,or how extensive it's spread ,we were just told it's cancer of the partoid and well know more once we get the scans done and the MDT team look at it all.

The nurse said they treat people of all ages often older than me dad ,but it's done on a case by case assessment as the treatment can be tough.To be blunt I hope to god it's contained and a operation cures it,I really don't want the cure to be worse than the disease with still a bad outcome in the end.

Let us know how your dad gets on. Hugs 

My dad had both his MRI and CT scan done and we received the results.Simply put it looks as though the cancer hasn't gone anywhere outside the salivery gland...but they aren't sure still if it originated there or came from somewhere else...they've also said the cancer cells are poorly differentiated...I looked up that and spoke to a cns they'd allocated to my dad about what that meant.My dad is going Tommorrow good Friday for further addition scans that look at things in a different way ,he's getting a spine scan ,MRI,CT and also a brain scan because there's so.e abnormalities shown up on the previous MRI scan and in the nurses words they can't leave any stone unturned.....he's an appointment in two weeks to discuss face to face again with the team and fingers x they'll have got the plan ready for him going forward.Still very very worrying but crazy as it sounds you quickly get used to you're new normality.

Thanks for that update. Things are moving for your dad and his team seems on top of things. 
Poorly differentiated just means they don’t look like normal cells. It’s a characteristic of cancer. 
Just enjoy the Easter sunshine and do things you like to do together. Fingers crossed nothing else is found. 

Hi, this is similar to my husband although his had spread from parotid into lymph nodes. Also poorly differentiated (there are varying levels) and his had extracapsular spread too.

It seems difficult to tell whether it started in the parotid or not. The surgeon is sure it did, the pathologist said it didn’t, the oncologist isn’t sure. Our official staging is T0 as the aren’t sure where it started but there is no sign of it anywhere else on MRI or Pet Ct. We are two weeks into chemo RT now and had a neck dissection in Jan.

Good luck and it will start moving soon x