Tumours of the salivary glands display a great histological variety, and vary in behaviour from totally benign to high grade malignancies with a fatal outcome. Over the past 40 years several classifications were proposed; the most comprehensive and accurate are those of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) which were both revised in 1991. They are readily applicable by practising surgical pathologists, and encom- pass most of the tumours likely to be encountered. This paper discusses briefly each tumour, and highlights the changes from previous classifications, including several new clinicopathological entities.

        Key words: salivary gland tumor, classification, prognosis, differential diagnosis.