Description
A mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a tumour that usually occurs in the salivary glands. These tumours account for 5% of all salivary gland tumours commonly arise within the parotid gland and are the most common malignant tumour to arise in children and adults under 20 years of age. The tumour is a firm to hard mass and is usually asymptomatic.1 It can mimic most other tumours of the glands, and therefore is often considered in the differential.2 Within the oral cavity, mucoepidermoid carcinoma often resembles a mucocele. It has a female predilection and is uncommon in the first decade of life.3 We report a case with rare clinical findings. An 18-year-old boy presented to our outpatient Department of Periodontology, Teerthanker Mahaveer Dental College and Research Centre, with a 5-month history of painless swelling on the right buccal mucosa near the lip commissure (figure 1). On examination, the swelling was well defined, smooth and oval shaped, measuring 2×2 cm. It was fluctuant, firm and non-tender on palpation. A provisional diagnosis of mucocele was established. An excisional biopsy was performed. Histopathological slides showed round-to-ovoid shaped tumour cells having vesicular nuclei with prominent nucleoli and deep eosinophilic cytoplasm arranged into groups and sheets (figure 2). The overall features indicated low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma of minor salivary gland.
Figure 1.
Swelling on the right buccal mucosa near the lip commissure.
Figure 2.
Histopathological examination showing nucleoli and deep eosinophilic cytoplasm arranged into groups and sheets.
Learning points.
Although mucoepidermoid carcinoma is seen mostly in children, it also occurs at different age groups.
The tumour usually forms as a painless, fixed, slowly growing swelling of widely varying duration that sometimes goes through a phase of accelerated growth immediately before clinical presentation.
Histopathological examination of such oral mucous lesions should be performed for their diagnosis.
Footnotes
Competing interests: None.
Patient consent: Obtained.
Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
References
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