A Case of Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Lower Lip

Abstract

Minor salivary gland tumors are rarely encountered head and neck tumors. These tumors are more often malignant than neoplasms of the major salivary glands. In this article, we report a patient with mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the lower lip. The patient was a 50-year-old woman who presented with the chief complaint of pain in the lower lip. On examination, a small nodule was palpable on the right side of the lower lip, with tenderness. MRI did not reveal any lesion. Therefore, we performed surgery under local anesthesia for diagnosis and treatment. The nodule was confirmed by palpation and removed with the surrounding tissue. Histopathology revealed the diagnosis of low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma, and the resection margins were negative. Although the incidence of minor salivary gland tumors is low, they must be included in the differential diagnosis of nodular lesions of the lower lip, as the incidence of malignant transformation of these tumors is relatively high.