Nasopharyngeal Pleomorphic Adenoma: A Rare Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Salivary gland tumors are rare among all head and neck tumors. Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) is the most commonly seen subtype, and 85% of the cases are located in the parotid gland. PA may very rarely be seen in minor salivary glands. Minor salivary gland PAs are mostly located in the hard and soft palates. Nasopharyngeal PA is very rare, and a total of 8 cases have been published to date. In this case report, a 51-year-old female patient who had nasopharyngeal PA with chondroid metaplasia is presented, and we review the relevant literature.

Pleomorphic Adenoma: A Systematic Review

“…Twenty-two full-text articles published in the English language were included for the review purpose, which met the inclusion criteria of the reviewers. Studies included in the review were Tandon et al, 8 Taiwo et al, 9 Farhat et al, 10 Panda et al, 11 Celik, 12 Balan et al, 13 Kaul et al, 14 Mittal et al, 15 Kamala et al, 16 Bagga et al, 17 Modak et al, 18 Jain et al, 19 Verma et al, 20 Dhir et al, 21 Saito et al, 22 Swarnagowri et al, 23 Nagaraj et al, 24 Rahnama, 25 Sunil, 26 Aggarwal et al, 27 Kumar et al, 28 and Shrestha et al 29 …”

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma ex-pleomorphic adenoma (noninvasive): A report of a rare case

“…The important clinical manifestations of CXPA are recent rapid growth and malignant transformation following repeated resection of PA.[ 2 ]…”

“…[ 1 ] Salivary gland tumors are rare in the head and neck region, accounting for <5% of all tumors. [ 1 2 ] Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) is the most common type among benign tumors of salivary glands. PA is also known as a benign mixed tumor.…”

“…PA in the nasopharynx is very rare, with only very few cases reported in English literature. [ 1 2 3 ] Malignant mixed tumor of the salivary gland is uncommon. Malignant mixed tumor of the salivary gland comprises three different entities.…”

“…They are carcinoma arising in a benign mixed tumor (carcinoma ex-pleomorphic adenoma [CXPA]), carcinosarcoma and metastasizing mixed malignant tumor. [ 4 ] A CXPA is a malignant epithelial neoplasm taking origin from a primary or recurrent benign PA.[ 2 ] There are <20 reported cases of nasopharyngeal CXPA in the world literature to the best of our knowledge. [ 1 ] Hereby, we report one such extremely rare case.…”