Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the head and neck: clinical analysis of 43 patients.
OBJECTIVE
It is well known that mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) displays a variety of biological behaviors. While the high-grade type is a highly aggressive tumor, its low-grade counterpart usually demonstrates a more benign nature and several systems have, therefore, been proposed to grade this neoplasm.


METHODS
This report analyzes 43 patients suffering from head and neck MEC, who were treated in our department during the period from 1989 to 2005. The relationship between clinical and pathologic characteristics and survival rate was investigated.


RESULTS
The 5-year overall and disease-free survival rate was 62.3 and 57.2%. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the parameters that significantly affected survival were the patient's age (P = 0.040) and treatment method (P = 0.011).


CONCLUSIONS
The patient's age and treatment method is the prognostic parameter in this study. Although complete surgical resection is the standard treatment for MEC, we should aggressively consider adjunctive radiotherapy in those cases that have a high risk of recurrence and poor prognosis.
Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. ozakky@cb.mbn.or.jp
Hiroyuki
H
Ozawa
Toshiki
T
Tomita
Koji
K
Sakamoto
Takamasa
T
Tagawa
Ryoichi
R
Fujii
Sho
S
Kanzaki
Kaoru
K
Ogawa
Kaori
K
Kameyama
Masato
M
Fujii
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D018277:Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D012737:Sex Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome