Abstract

The mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a rare tumor arising in the bronchial submucosal glands that shows an intimate admixture of glandular elements and sheets of cells with little or no definite squamous differentiation. The low grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a characteristic and readily recognized tumor. The very rare high grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma must be distinguished with care from the much more common adenosquamous bronchogenic carcinoma. The present case was a 45-year-old female patient with a several-year history of right chest pain and a few-day-history of coughing, fever, dyspnea. Under the bronchoscopic impression of the bronchial adenoma, right middle and lower lobectomy was done. Grossly, the endobronchial mass, 1.2×1.2cm, was located at the mainsterm bronchus branching to middle and lower lobe. It was well circumscribed. It occluded most of the bronchus supplying the lower lobe. The cut surface was whitish gray, relatively smooth and firm. Microscopically, the tumor consisted primarily of large cells, growing in sheets. Keratinization is absent in these epidermoid area. Interspersed among these cells, are mucus- producing individual cells. Mucous containing glands of various size and shape are numerous and widely scattered in the tumor. Cellular atypism and mitoses were absent.