Myoepithelial cell carcinoma of the oral cavity: A case report and review of literature

Abstract

Myoepithelial carcinoma (MC) is a malignant salivary gland neoplasm whose tumor cells demonstrate cytologic differentiation toward myoepithelial cells and lack ductal or acinar differentiation. It is a relatively rare tumor and many a times remains undiagnosed because of histopathological heterogeneity. It represents about 0.4–0.6% of all salivary gland tumors and 1.2–1.5% of carcinomas. It occurs predominantly in the parotid gland with a mean age of presentation being 55 years (range 14–86) with no sex predilection. MC appears to be a low grade malignancy when arising in a pleomorphic adenoma, but tends to be more aggressive and has a higher metastatic potential when arising de novo. The clinical behavior of MC is variable and there are no pathologic features that correlate with patients’ outcome. Most tumors that display marked cytologic atypia, high mitotic activity and necrosis tend to behave aggressively. The current case is of a 42-year-old male with recurrent tumor mass in the mandibular right posterior region. The purpose of this article was to describe the clinicopathological and immunohistochemical features of intraoral MC and to discuss review of literature of this rare tumor.

Myoepithelial Carcinoma of the Salivary Glands: A Clinicopathologic Study of 29 Patients

“…The efficacy of radiotherapy and chemotherapy is still controversial. [20][21][22][23] In the present study, no correlation was noted between a better prognosis and the use of postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy.…”

Clear cell myoepithelial carcinoma involving vestibule and alveolus: A rare case report with review of literature

“…Morphologic heterogeneity of tumor cells in MC include epithelioid, plasmacytoid, spindle, clear, stellate and mixed type. [ 5 ] Kane et al . in a series of 51 cases of MC, observed that minor gland involvement (almost 75%) exceeded major salivary gland involvement (<25%).…”

“…The ulceration proves a more aggressive variant histopathologically that is spindle cell variant. [ 5 ] Histopathologically, predominantly clear cells were present along with epithelioid cells in a hyalinized scant stroma. Benign and MMs may pose a dilemma in diagnosing as the features, and cellular type may be common.…”

Voluminous Myoepithelioma of the Minor Salivary Glands Involving the Base of the Tongue

“…Myoepithelioma and its malignant counterpart, myoepithelial carcinoma, of the salivary glands are neoplasms made up almost exclusively of tumour cells with myoepithelial differentiation [ 6 ]. Their differential diagnosis includes a wide range of both benign and malignant tumours, depending on the predominant cell type: epithelioid, spindle, hyaline, clear cell [ 8 ]. In particular, the main differential diagnosis of myoepithelioma is pleomorphic adenoma (PA) [ 3 , 9 ].…”