OBJECTIVE To discern whether the microvessel density (MVD) and the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could be prognostic indicators for the metastasis and survival of patients with SACC after radical surgery. METHODS After the follow-up of 31 primary patients with SACC treated with radical surgeries for at least 60 months, the paraffin-bedded sections of the those patients were stained immunohistochemically with anti-CD34-McAb and anti-VEGF-McAb, respectively. Subsequently, two pathologists double-blindly evaluated the sections stained with anti-CD34-McAb to determine the MVD values individually, as well as, measured the sections stained with the ani-VEGF-McAb to determine the OD values. Consequently the data were analyzed with the statistic software package detailed. RESULTS The univariate statistical analysis showed that the pathological types of SACC, the TNM stages, MVD and OD values were all statistically significant variables for the survival of the patients with SACC (P = 0.047, 0.000, 0.000, 0.024). Furthermore, among those reliable variables, only MVD was more significant in the Cox proportional hazard model for the multivariate analyses (P = 0.000). The MVD values were statistically significantly higher, in the group with either death, or metastasis, or tumor-relapse, or worse pathological types, or advanced TNM stages, than their counterparts respectively(P = 0.029, 0.045, 0.019, 0.031, 0.00). On the other hand, the OD values were also statistically significantly higher, in the group with either death, or worse pathological types, or advanced TNM stages, than their counterparts respectively(P = 0.037, 0.013, 0.014). The results of Fisher exact test showed that the incidence of distant metastasis differed statistically significantly between the subgroups divided with the median of the MVD values (P = 0.032). The stepwise linear regression equation showed that the MVD value correlated positively with the OD value (P = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS The MVD value and the expression level of VEGF all have statistically significant correlations with the survival of the patients with SACC, moreover, the MVD value is more significant as a prognostic indicator. The MVD value could also be a prognostic indicator for the incidence of the distant metastasis of patients with SACC. The over-expression of VEGF in SACC might contribute to the MVD values increasing.