title: [Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Lung: Report of 29 Cases].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is an extremely rare pulmonary malignant tumor, its clinical features and conditions of prognosis is not entirely clear. The aim of this study is to discuss clinical features, diagnostic and therapeutic methods, and prognosis of pulmonary MEC.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively studied 29 pulmonary MEC patients who diagnosed from January 2006 to December 2015 in Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University. The clinical features, prognosis, diagnostic and therapeutic methods were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 20 patients identified as pulmonary MEC, which constitutes 0.18% of all the lung tumor patients. There were 18 males and 11 females, the median age of the patients was 45 years (range 10-79). There were 17 patients identified as high-grade pulmonary MEC and 12 low-grade. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation detection was performed in six patients, none was positive. 17 cases was underwent surgery based comprehensive treatment, 12 cases non-operatived treatment. The median follow-up time was 35 (5-114) months in this cohort of 29 patients. During the follow up, incidence of death was found in 17 cases. The overall 1-, 3-, 5-year survival rates were 65.5%, 51.2%, 39.4%, respectively. The median survival time was 37 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The incidence of pulmonary MEC is low, lacking specific clinical characterization. The diagnosis mainly depends on postoperative pathology, aided by immunohistochemical. Surgery is the main treatment method. The majority of pathology was high-grade type. The prognosis of pulmonary MEC closely relates to the pathological types and clinical stage. EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) is expected to improve the prognosis of pulmonary MEC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450008, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450008, China.
authors.forename: Huijuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450008, China.
authors.forename: Guowei
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450008, China.
authors.forename: Yanyang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450008, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018277:Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D055815:Young Adult