Thirteen patients with carcinomas of major and minor salivary gland origin (nine adenoid cystic carcinomas and four adenocarcinomas) were treated with cyclophosphamide (500 mg/m2), doxorubicin (50 mg/m2), and cisplatin (50 mg/m2) (CAP) by intravenous injections on the first day of a 28-day regimen. Sixty-one cycles of CAP were administered (mean, 4.7 cycles per patient). Eleven patients were treated for palliation of recurrent disease (locoregional, ten; lung, ten; liver, three; and bone, three). Two patients untreated previously, one with extensive local disease involving the base of the skull and one with a solitary lung metastasis (resected with a positive margin) and an initially unappreciated base of tongue primary, received two cycles of CAP followed by local treatment and adjuvant CAP. Previous therapy for the 11 patients with recurrent disease included surgery (ten), radiotherapy [RT(1 l)], chemotherapy (three), or hormonal therapy (two). Three complete and three partial responses to chemotherapy were noted for an overall response rate of 46%. The median duration of response in palliative patients was 5 months (range, 2 to 9). Of the two patients receiving induction CAP, one relapsed with distant disease 26 months after treatment, and the other remains disease-free after 60 months of follow-up examination. Chemotherapy was well tolerated generally, and no chemotherapy-related deaths occurred. One hypertensive patient suffered a stroke after 3 cycles of therapy. CAP is an active regimen against salivary gland carcinomas and deserves further study. Also, it may be of value as induction or adjuvant treatment for patients with advanced disease untreated previously.