Rare Case of Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Thyroid Gland

Abstract

Thyroid cancers (CA) account for about 0.4% of all CA deaths. It is thus very important to be able to determine the type of CA in view of the differing prognosis and possibility of the CA being a secondary from other glands like the Salivary gland. Mucoepidermoid CA is an extremely rare form of Thyroid CA and not much is known about its origin, disease course and treatment. While some think it originates from the Salivary gland, others believe it comes from Ultimobrachial body cell nests. It seems to be slow growing but it also has some metastatic properties. Generally, total thyroidectomy has been suggested as treatment due to lack of adequate information about the disease. The authors want to present a rare finding of Mucoepidermoid CA in a Thyroid lump.

Primary Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Thyroid: A Report of a Rare Case with Bone Metastasis and Review of the Literature

“…According to those 46 reported cases (Table 1, Table 2, Table 3, Table 4, Table 5) [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15], occurrence of MEC is more commonly in females with a ratio of 1.56: 1. Diagnosis age ranges from 10 to 91 years have been reported, with the mean being approximately 46.4 years.…”