Larynx, hypopharynx & trachea
Other malignancies
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma
Author: Adriana Handra-Luca, M.D.
Topic Completed: 1 October 2012
Minor changes: 3 March 2021
Copyright: 2002-2021, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma trachea
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Clinical features | Case reports | Treatment | Microscopic (histologic) description | Positive stains | Negative stains | Differential diagnosisCite this page: Handra-Luca A. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/tracheamucoepidermoid.html. Accessed March 3rd, 2021.
Definition / general
- Usually low grade lesion with squamous cells without atypia in desmoplastic stroma
Clinical features
- Usually children with a luminal polyp, possibly with bronchus extension
- May occur in patients with tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica
- Symptoms: dyspnea, stridor
Case reports
- 9 year old boy with dyspnea and diaphoresis (Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg 2012;15:311)
- 11 year old girl with dedifferentiated tumor (Histopathology 2009;55:472)
- 22 year old woman with exertional dyspnea and stridor (Pneumologia 2011;60:164)
- 51 year old man with tracheobronchopathia osteochondroplastica (Chirurg 1995;66:231)
- 78 year old woman with oncocytic tumor (Arch Pathol Lab Med 1999;123:635)
Treatment
- Resection
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Low grade lesion with foci of squamous differentiation without atypia in desmoplastic stroma
- Prominent vascular component
- No marked atypia, no necrosis, no mitotic activity, no angiolymphatic invasion, may be dedifferentiated
Positive stains
- Keratin (entire tumor)
- Oncocytic tumor: PTAH and antimitochondrial antibody in oncocytes
Negative stains
- Neuroendocrine markers, Congo red
Differential diagnosis
- Carcinoid tumor
