Curious case of primary pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma.

Bajpai, Jyoti; Rajagopal, T V; Kant, Surya; Shukla, Saumya; Pradhan, Akshyaya; Bajaj, Darshan K · J Family Med Prim Care · 2019

case_report · Level V

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Abstract

Pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is an uncommon tumor constituting only 0.1% to 0.2% of all lung carcinoma. It is classified under "salivary gland type" tumors in the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of lung cancers. It generally carries a better prognosis than the more common small cell and nonsmall cell lung carcinomas. It is pathologically classified into high-grade and low-grade tumors. High-grade tumors are usually unresectable at presentation. However, surgery is the mainstay of treatment, which aims at surgically negative margins for a complete cure. In our patient, pulmonary MEC presented with intrathoracic mass with pericardial effusion. It came out to be low-grade neoplasm, which was treated with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy and responded well with near-total disappearance of tumor, like a vanishing lung tumor.