title: Nasopharyngeal mucoepidermoid carcinoma: a review of 13 cases.
abstract: Nasopharyngeal mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is an extremely rare entity. To date, there is little published about its clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes. Between 1997 and 2009, 13 cases of MEC were confirmed and treated at the department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). Nasal obstruction, bleeding and hearing loss were the most common presentations, whereas, neck mass, headache and cranial nerve palsy were uncommon. Tumors remained stable after either primary radiation therapy or post-operative radiation therapy for the residual, though the majority of them were high or high-intermediate grade tumors. Five patients, who received either primary surgery or salvage surgery, had positive surgical margins, however, all are alive with stable disease except one old patient died of heart failure. The overall median survival of our patients was 43months, ranging from 8 to 80months. Based on the present results, we recommend that primary surgery should be the standard of care for all non-metastatic tumors regardless of histopathologic grade, and post-operative radiation therapy should be considered under the circumstances of positive surgical margins, macroscopic residual tumors, and high grade carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Hospital of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) and Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xi-Mei
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jian-Zhong
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Jing-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Guo-Zhen
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Shao-Yan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhen-Gang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ping-Zhang
authors.initials: PZ
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D018277:Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome