Open AccessCurious case of primary pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma
Author(s) -
Jaya Bajpai,
TP Rajagopal,
Surya Kant,
Saumya Shukla,
Akshyaya Pradhan,
Darshan Kumar Bajaj
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of family medicine and primary care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2278-7135
pISSN - 2249-4863
DOI - 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_731_19
Subject(s) - medicine , mucoepidermoid carcinoma , lung , carcinoma , pericardial effusion , pleural effusion , large cell , neoplasm , presentation (obstetrics) , radiology , pathology , adenocarcinoma , cancer
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.