2009 Volume 102 Issue 12 Pages 1033-1037
Epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma (EMCa) comprises less than 1% of all salivary gland neoplasms and mainly involves the major salivary glands, especially the parotid gland. We report on a case of an EMCa arising from the parotid gland. An 86-year-old woman visited our hospital with a painless mass in the left subaural region which had been present for two years. Head and neck imagings revealed a 28×30 mm mass in the left parotid gland. There was no apparent facial nerve involvement on clinical evaluation. A pleomorphic adenoma was suspected following cytodiagnosis of a needle biopsy specimen. The tumor was resected with the left superficial part of the parotid gland on November 6, 2006. Histopathological and immunohistochemical examination revealed that the inner cells had differentiated to the ductal epithelium and outer cells to the myoepithelium. Consequently, the final diagnosis was an epithelial-myoepithelial carcinoma. Two years after surgery, the patient’s postoperative course has been uneventful.
