Treatment may include the following:

- Surgery with or without radiation

- Radiotherapy

Fast neutron therapy has been used successfully to treat salivary gland tumors, and has shown to be significantly more effective than photons in studies treating unresectable salivary gland tumors.

- Chemotherapy

Primary treatment for this cancer, regardless of body site, is surgical removal with clean margins. This surgery can prove challenging in the head and neck region due to this tumour's tendency to spread along nerve tracts. Adjuvant or palliative radiotherapy is commonly given following surgery. For advanced major and minor salivary gland tumors that are inoperable, recurrent, or exhibit gross residual disease after surgery, fast neutron therapy is widely regarded as the most effective form of treatment.

Chemotherapy is used for metastatic disease. Chemotherapy is considered on a case by case basis, as there is limited trial data on the positive effects of chemotherapy. Clinical studies are ongoing, however.

a) Surgical resection is mainstay of treatment, whenever possible. If tumor is completely removed, post-operative radiation therapy is typically not needed since acinic cell is considered a low-grade histology. Post-operative radiation therapy for acinic cell carcinoma is used if: 1) margins are positive, 2) incomplete resection, 3) tumor invades beyond gland, 4) positive lymph nodes.

b) Neutron beam radiation

c) Conventional radiation

d) Chemotherapy

PLGAs are treated with wide local surgical excision and long-term follow-up.

There is a recurrence rate of 14% (Peterson, contemporary of oral and maxillofacial surgery).

Wide, radical, complete surgical excision is the treatment of choice, with free surgical margins to achieve the best outcome and lowest chance of recurrence. Radiation is only used for palliation. In general, there is a good prognosis, although approximately 50% of patients die from disease within 3–10 years of presentation.

This type of carcinoma is commonly managed by local resection, cryotherapy, topical chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Multimodal therapy has been shown to improve both visual prognosis and survival.

Mohs micrographic surgery has become the treatment of choice for this form of cancer. When used as the primary treatment modality for sebaceous carcinoma of the eyelid, Mohs surgery is associated with significantly lower local and distant recurrence rates.

MASC is currently treated as a low-grade (i.e. Grade 1) carcinoma with an overall favorable prognosis. These cases are treated by complete surgical excision. However, the tumor does have the potential to recur locally and/or spread beyond surgically dissectible margins as well as metastasize to regional lymph nodes and distant tissues, particularly in tumors with histological features indicating a high cell growth rate potential. One study found lymph node metastasis in 5 of 34 MASC patients at initial surgery for the disease; these cases, when evidencing no further spread of disease, may be treated with radiation therapy. The treatment of cases with disease spreading beyond regional lymph nodes has been variable, ranging from simple excision to radical resections accompanied by adjuvant radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy, depending on the location of disease. Mean disease-free survival for MASC patients has been reported to be 92 months in one study.

The tyrosine kinase activity of NTRK3 as well as the ETV6-NTRK3 protein is inhibited by certain tyrosine kinase inhibitory drugs such as Entrectinib and LOXO-101; this offers a potential medical intervention method using these drugs to treat aggressive MASC disease. Indeed, one patient with extensive head and neck MASC disease obtained an 89% fall in tumor size when treated with entrectinib. This suppression lasted only 7 months due to the tumor's acquirement of a mutation in the "ETV6-NTRK3" gene. The newly mutated gene encoded an entrectinib-reisistant "ETV6-NTRK3" protein. Treatment of aggressive forms of MASC with NTRK3-inhibiting tyrosine kinase inhibiting drugs, perhaps with switching to another type of tyrosine kinase inhibitor drug if the tumor acquires resistance to the initial drug, is under study.STARTRK-2

There are three main treatments for Hürthle cell adenomas. Once the adenoma is detected most often the nodules removed to prevent the cells from later metastisizing. A total thyroidectomy is often performed, this results in a complete removal of the thyroid. Some patients may only have half of their thyroid removed, this is known as a thyroid lobectomy. Another treatment option includes pharmacological suppression of thyroid hormone. The thyroid gland is responsible for producing the thyroid hormones triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4). Patients with suppressed thyroid function often require oral thyroid replacement (e.g. levothyroxine) in order to maintain normal thyroid hormone levels. The final treatment option is RAI abaltion (radioactive iodine ablation). This treatment option is used to destroy infected thyroid cells after total thyroidectomy. This treatment does not change prognosis of disease, but will diminish the recurrence rate. Also, Hürthle cells do not respond well to RAI. However, often doctors suggest this treatment to patients with Hürthle cell adenoma and Hürthle cell carcinoma because some Hürthle cells will respond and it will kill remaining tissue.

Thyroidectomy and neck dissection show good results in early stages of SCTC. However, due to highly aggressive phenotype, surgical treatment is not always possible. The SCTC is a radioiodine-refractory tumor. Radiotherapy might be effective in certain cases, resulting in relatively better survival rate and quality of life. Vincristine, Adriamycin, and bleomycin are used for adjuvant chemotherapy, but their effects are not good enough according to published series.

The only curative treatment is complete surgical excision of the tumor, which can be performed even in the case of invasion into large blood vessels, such as the renal vein or inferior vena cava. The 5-year survival rate after successful surgery is 50–60%, but unfortunately, a large percentage of patients are not surgical candidates. Radiation therapy and radiofrequency ablation may be used for palliation in patients who are not surgical candidates.

Chemotherapy regimens typically include the drug mitotane, an inhibitor of steroid synthesis which is toxic to cells of the adrenal cortex, as well as standard cytotoxic drugs. A retrospective analysis showed a survival benefit for mitotane in addition to surgery when compared to surgery alone.

The two most common regimens are cisplatin, doxorubicin, etoposide + mitotane and streptozotocin + mitotane. It is unknown which regimen is better. Researchers at Uppsala University Hospital initiated a collaboration between adrenocortical cancer specialists in Europe, USA and Australia, to conduct the first ever randomized controlled trial in adrenocortical cancer (FIRM-ACT study), comparing these two regimens.

Aggressive surgical removal of the tumor and any enlarged sublumbar lymph nodes is essential for treatment of the tumor and associated hypercalcaemia. There is a high recurrence rate, although removal of lymph nodes with metastasis may improve survival time. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy may be helpful in treatment. Severe hypercalcaemia is treated with aggressive IV fluid therapy using sodium chloride and medications such as loop diuretics (increased kidney excretion of calcium) and aminobisphosphonates (decreased calcium release from bones). A poorer prognosis is associated with large tumor size (greater than 10 cm), hypercalcaemia, and distante metastasis. Early, incidental diagnosis of small anal sac masses may lead to a better prognosis with surgery alone (ongoing study).

A non-minimally invasive Hürthle cell carcinoma is typically treated by a total thyroidectomy followed by radioactive iodine therapy. A Hürthle cell adenoma or a minimally invasive tumor can be treated by a thyroid lobectomy, although some surgeons will perform a total thyroidectomy to prevent the tumor from reappearing and metastasizing.

A modified radical neck dissection may be performed for clinically positive lymph nodes.

Complete radical surgical resection is the treatment of choice for EMECL, and in most cases, results in long-term survival or cure.

Nipple adenomas are non-cancerous growths, which can recur if not completely surgically removed. There are reported cases of cancers arising within nipple adenomas, and following excision of nipple adenomas, but these are rare occurrences.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new modality for treatment of basal-cell carcinoma, which is administrated by application of photosensitizers to the target area. When these molecules are activated by light, they become toxic, therefore destroy the target cells. Methyl aminolevulinate is approved by EU as a photosensitizer since 2001. This therapy is also used in other skin cancer types. The 2008 study reported that PDT was a good treatment option for primary superficial BCCs, reasonable for primary low-risk nodular BCCs, but a 'relatively poor' option for high-risk lesions.

Overall, the mainstay of the treatment for salivary gland tumor is surgical resection. Needle biopsy is highly recommended prior to surgery to confirm the diagnosis. More detailed surgical technique and the support for additional adjuvant radiotherapy depends on whether the tumor is malignant or benign.

Surgical treatment of parotid gland tumors is sometimes difficult, partly because of the anatomical relationship of the facial nerve and the parotid lodge, but also through the increased potential for postoperative relapse. Thus, detection of early stages of a tumor of the parotid gland is extremely important in terms of prognosis after surgery.

Generally, benign tumors of the parotid gland are treated with superficial(Patey's operation) or total parotidectomy with the latter being the more commonly practiced due to high incidence of recurrence. The facial nerve should be preserved whenever possible. The benign tumors of the submandibular gland is treated by simple excision with preservation of mandibular branch of the trigeminal nerve, the hypoglossal nerve, and the lingual nerve. Other benign tumors of minor salivary glands are treated similarly.

Malignant salivary tumors usually require wide local resection of the primary tumor. However, if complete resection cannot be achieved, adjuvant radiotherapy should be added to improve local control. This surgical treatment has many sequellae such as cranial nerve damage, Frey's syndrome, cosmetic problems, etc.

Usually about 44% of the patients have a complete histologic removal of the tumor and this refers to the most significant survival rate.

Surgery and radiation therapy have been the major treatments for medullary thyroid carcinoma.

Radiation therapy can be delivered either as external beam radiotherapy or as brachytherapy (internal radiotherapy). Although radiotherapy is generally used in older patients who are not candidates for surgery, it is also used in cases where surgical excision will be disfiguring or difficult to reconstruct (especially on the tip of the nose, and the nostril rims). Radiation treatment often takes as few as 5 visits to as many as 25 visits. Usually, the more visits scheduled for therapy, the less complication or damage is done to the normal tissue supporting the tumor. Radiotherapy can also be useful if surgical excision has been done incompletely or if the pathology report following surgery suggests a high risk of recurrence, for example if nerve involvement has been demonstrated. Cure rate can be as high as 95% for small tumor, or as low as 80% for large tumors. Usually, recurrent tumors after radiation are treated with surgery, and not with radiation. Further radiation treatment will further damage normal tissue, and the tumor might be resistant to further radiation. Radiation therapy may be contraindicated for treatment of nevoid basal-cell carcinoma syndrome. The 2008 study reported that radiation therapy is a good treatment for primary BCCs and recurrent BCCs, but not for BCCs that have recurred following previous radiation treatment.

Patients treated with complete surgical excision can expect an excellent long term outcome without any problems. Recurrences may be seen in tumors which are incompletely excised.

Clinical trials of protein kinase inhibitors, which block the abnormal kinase proteins involved in the development and growth of medullary cancer cells, showed clear evidence of response in 10-30% of patients. In the majority of responders there has been less than a 30% decrease in tumor mass, yet the responses have been durable; responses have been stable for periods exceeding 3 years. The major side effects of this class of drug include hypertension, nausea, diarrhea, some cardiac electrical abnormalities, and thrombotic or bleeding episodes.

Vandetanib, trade name Caprelsa, was the first drug (April 2011) to be approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of late-stage (metastatic) medullary thyroid cancer in adult patients who are ineligible for surgery.

Cabozantinib, trade name Cometriq, was granted marketing approval (November 2012) by the U.S. FDA for this indication. Cabozantinib which is a potent inhibitor of RET, MET and VEGF was evaluated in a double-blind placebo controlled trial. It was shown to improve overall survival by 5 months for the treated cohort vs. placebo, which was not statistically significant. However, cabozantinib was particularly effective in patients with the RET M918T mutation, extending overall survival by roughly 2 years, doubling survival vs. untreated patient (4 years vs. 2 year). Treatment with cabozantinib did require many dose reduction to mitigate side effects. It has been suggested that the trial dose of 140 mg was excessive, particularly in lower body mass patients. Ongoing trials have been scheduled to identify more optimal dosing regimes. Activity has been observed, in practice at doeses of 1.2 mg/kg.

Generally, there is a good prognosis for low-grade tumors, and a poor prognosis for high-grade tumors.

Surgery remains the mainstay of treatment for papillary thyroid cancer. The Revised 2009 American Thyroid Association guidelines for papillary thyroid cancer state that the initial procedure should be near-total or total thyroidectomy. Thyroid lobectomy alone may be sufficient treatment for small (<1 cm), low-risk, unifocal, intrathyroidal papillary carcinomas in the absence of prior head and neck irradiation or radiologically or clinically involved cervical nodal metastasis.

- Minimal disease (diameter up to 1.0 centimeters) - hemithyroidectomy (or unilateral lobectomy) and isthmectomy may be sufficient. There is some discussion whether this is still preferable over total thyroidectomy for this group of patients.

- Gross disease (diameter over 1.0 centimeters) - total thyroidectomy, and central compartment lymph node removal is the therapy of choice. Additional lateral neck nodes can be removed at the same time if an ultrasound guided FNA and thyroglobulin TG cancer washing was positive on the pre-operative neck node ultrasound evaluation.

Arguments for total thyroidectomy are:

- Reduced risk of recurrence, if central compartment nodes are removed at the original surgery.

- 30-85% of papillary carcinoma is multifocal disease. Hemithyroidectomy may leave disease in the other lobe. However, multifocal disease in the remnant lobe may not necessarily become clinically significant or serve as a detriment to patient survival.

- Ease of monitoring with thyroglobulin (sensitivity for picking up recurrence is increased in presence of total thyroidectomy, and ablation of the remnant normal thyroid by low dose radioiodine 131 after following a low iodine diet (LID).

- Ease of detection of metastatic disease by thyroid and neck node ultrasound.

- Post-operative complications at high-volume thyroid surgery centers with experienced surgeons are comparable to that of hemithyroidectomy.

Arguments for hemithyroidectomy:

- Most patients have low-risk cancer with an excellent prognosis, with similar survival outcomes in low-risk patients who undergo total thyroidectomy versus hemithyroidectomy.

- Less likelihood of patient requiring lifelong thyroid hormone replacement after surgery.

Thyroid total body scans are less reliable at finding recurrence than TG and ultrasound.

Papillary tumors tend to be more aggressive in patients over age 45. In such cases, it might be required to perform a more extensive resection including portions of the trachea. Also, the sternocleidomastoid muscle, jugular vein, and accessory nerve are to be removed if such procedure allows apparently complete tumor resection. If a significant amount of residual tumor is left in the neck, external radiotherapy has been indicated and has proven useful especially in those cases when the residual tumor does not take up radioiodine.

After surgical thyroid removal, the patient waits around 4–6 weeks to then have radioiodine therapy. This therapy is intended to both detect and destroy any metastasis and residual tissue in the thyroid. The treatment may be repeated 6–12 months after initial treatment of metastatic disease where disease recurs or has not fully responded.

Patients are administered hormone replacement levothyroxine for life after surgery, especially after total thyroidectomy. Chemotherapy with cisplatin or doxorubicin has proven limited efficacy, however, it could be helpful for patients with bone metastases to improve their quality of life. Patients are also prescribed levothyroxine and radioiodine after surgery. Levothyroxine influences growth and maturation of tissues and it is involved in normal growth, metabolism, and development. In case of metastases, patients are prescribed antineoplastic agents which inhibit cell growth and proliferation and help in palliating symptoms in progressive disease.

After successful treatment, 35 percent of the patients may experience a recurrence within a 40-year span. Also, patients may experience a high incidence of nodule metastasis, with 35 percent cases of cervical node metastases. Approximately 20 percent of patients will develop multiple tumors within the thyroid gland.

There is ongoing discussion regarding the best management regarding the optimal surgical procedure for papillary thyroid cancer. Prognosis of patients with papillary thyroid cancer is found to be dependent on the patient's age, the size of the tumor, presence of metastatic disease, and the presence of tumor invasion into adjacent tissues near the thyroid gland. Recent studies have examined a more conservative approach to surgery and have demonstrated that hemithyroidectomy may be acceptable for patients with low-risk papillary thyroid cancer with tumor size 1 cm to 4 cm with no presence of invasion to tissues surrounding the thyroid or metastasis. Studies examining large databases of patients with papillary thyroid cancer have concluded that there is no survival advantage for patients with stage I papillary thyroid cancer size 1–4 cm receiving total thyroidectomy versus hemithyroidectomy. In light of this data, choosing the optimal course of surgical and medical management of papillary thyroid cancer should involve shared decision making from patient, endocrinologists, and surgeons.

Standard treatment is surgery with adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. As a variation, neoadjuvant chemotherapy is very frequently used for triple-negative breast cancers. This allows for a higher rate of breast-conserving surgeries and by evaluating the response to the chemotherapy gives important clues about the individual responsiveness of the particular cancer to chemotherapy.

In addition to chemotherapy, an additive called Didox can be added to aid in the reduction of drug resistance and further treatment efforts. Didox is used to inhibit ribonucleotide reductase M2 (RRM2) which contributes to the cells resistance of the chemotherapy treatment resulting in a large number of relapse (Wilson 2016). RRM2 is upregulated within these specific Triple Negative cancer cells leading to a higher rate of drug resistance and inability to slow or stop the tumor progression which leads to more aggressive forms of triple negative breast cancer that are often fatal (Wilson 2016).

TNBCs are generally very susceptible to chemotherapy. In some cases, however, early complete response does not correlate with overall survival. This makes it particularly complicated to find the optimal chemotherapy. Adding a taxane to the chemotherapy appears to improve outcome substantially.

"BRCA1"-related triple-negative breast cancer appear to be particularly susceptible to chemotherapy including platinum-based agents and taxanes.

Although mutations in single genes were not individually predictive, TNBC tumors bearing mutations in genes involved in the androgen receptor (AR) and FOXA1 pathways were much more sensitive to chemotherapy. Mutations in the AR/FOXA1 pathway provide a novel marker for identifying chemosensitive TNBC patients who may benefit from current standard-of-care chemotherapy regimens. Mutations that lowered the levels of functional BRCA1 or BRCA2 RNA were associated with significantly better survival outcomes. This BRCA deficience signature define a new, highly chemosensitive subtype of TNBC. BRCA-deficient TNBC tumors have a higher rate of clonal mutation burden, defined as more clonal tumors with a higher number of mutations per clone, and are also associated with a higher level of immune activation, which may explain their greater chemosensitivity.

They generally have a good prognosis. In one larger study, the 5-year and 10-year survival were over 90% and 80% respectively.

Angiogenesis and EGFR (HER-1) inhibitors are frequently tested in experimental settings and have shown efficacy. Treatment modalities are not sufficiently established for normal use, and it is unclear in which stage they are best used and which patients would profit.

By 2009 A number of new strategies for TNBC were being tested in clinical trials, including the PARP inhibitor BSI 201, NK012.

A novel antibody-drug conjugate known as Glembatumumab vedotin (CDX-011), which targets the protein GPNMB, has also shown encouraging clinical trial results in 2009.

PARP inhibitors had shown some promise in early trials but failed in some later trials.

Nov 2013: An accelerated approval Phase II clinical trial (METRIC) investigating glembatumumab vedotin versus capecitabine has begun, expected to enroll 300 patients with GPNMB-expressing metastatic TNBC.

Three early stage trials reported TNBC results in June 2016, for IMMU-132, Vantictumab, and atezolizumab in combination with the chemotherapy nab-paclitaxel.