A rare case of tonsillar mucoepidermoid carcinoma

Abstract

Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is one of the most common histological malignant salivary gland tumors, it is most frequently diagnosed in the parotid gland. MEC is also diagnosed in the intra oral minor salivary glands. Only a few cases of tonsillar MEC have been reported. We present a rare case of mucoepidermoid carcinoma arising from the left pharyngeal tonsil. This case report shows that it is important to perform tonsillectomy when discovering neck metastasis of salivary gland tumors with unknown primary.

Keywords:

• Oropharyngeal cancer
• mucoepidermoid cancer
• head and neck cancer
• salivary gland carcinoma

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). The authors wish to acknowledge the funding, from Linkoping University, in order to publish this case report.