Objective To analyze the clinical characteristics , therapeutic outcomes , and prognostic factors of primary salivary gland type nasopharyngeal carcinoma ( SNPC) . Methods The medical records of 54 patients with SNPC at single institution between 1963 and 2006 were reviewed, 2 patients received surgery alone, 30 patients received radiotherapy alone and 22 patients received combined modality therapy consisting of surgery (S) and radiotherapy ( RT) ( S + RT in 15 and RT + S in 7). Of them, 8 patients received chemotherapy , including post-operative adjuvant chemotherapy in 1 patient, palliative chemotherapy in 6 patients and concurrent chemotherapy in 1 patient. 36 patients had adenoid cystic carcinoma ( ACC) ,11 mucoepidermoid carcinoma ( MEC) , and 7 primary traditional adenocarcinoma ( AC) . The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the overall sunival ( OS) , locoregional failure-free survival ( LRFFS) , and distant failure-free survival ( DFFS) rates. Univariate analyses were performed using the Log-rank method.Comparisons of variables between cases were performed using Pearson chi-square test. Results The follow-up was 89％ . The 2-, and 5-year overall survival rates, loco-regional failure free survival rates and distant failure free survival rates were 85％ and 61％ , 74％ and 55％ , 92％ and 70％, respectively. Among the 35 patients with treatment failure, 26 patients had locoregional failure (1 in primary site and cervical lymph node ,23 in primary site and 2 in cervical lymph node) ,and 13 had distant metastasis. The lung was the most common site of metastasis ( n =10) , followed by liver (n = 3), bone ( n = 2) , brain ( n = 1) , and subcutaneous tissue ( n = 1) . Univariate analyses indicated that histological subtypes correlated with overall survival ( X2 = 15. 29, P = 0. 000) and cervial lymph node metastases correlated with distant failure-free survival ( X2 =9. 08 ,P = 0. 003) . Conclusions Primary salivary gland type nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a locally aggressive disease with a long course. The optimal treatment policy for patients with SNPC may be surgery plus radiotherapy.