Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is
an extremely rare form of carcinoma (CA). It most commonly occurs in the
salivary glands but has also been reported in the respiratory tract, esophagus,
breast, pancreas, genitals, anus, lips, mandible and rarely in the thyroid.
Origin of MEC is unknown but its thought to
originate from solid cell nests coming from Ultimobranchial body. However, some
authors
believe it to be of salivary duct epithelial origin, making up 3% - 9% of
all salivary gland tumor’s and about 30% of all malignant salivary gland tumor’s
and also occur in 60% - 70% of tumor’s in the parotid gland.
In any case, it rarely occurs in
the thyroid. Thyroid MEC have been reported very few times in literature but
the cytological properties of MEC seem to be consistent despite the organ of
origin5. They are mostly slow growing tumors but are known to show aggressive
behavior in a few cases. We wish to present a case of MEC that occurred in a
patient with Thyroid lump.
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