MUCOEPIDERMOID TRACHEOBRONCHIAL TUMORS - A SERIES OF 11 CASES

Mucoepidermoid tumours (TME) are rare tumours which develop at the lev el of rite submucous bronchial glands of the tracheobronchial tree. Th e majority of these tumours develop in a benign fashion bur some of th em are malign. Amongst these many are probably confused with adenosqua mous bronchial cancers. We have reviewed eleven patients suffering fro m TME who were observed over a period of twelve years. Two of these tu mours were at the level of the trachea: nine others were at the level of the bronchial cartilaginous trachea. Seven of these rumours had the macroscopic and histological criteria of low grade malignancy and fou r corresponded to those rumours said to show high grade malignancy. Th e only death concerned a patient with a tracheal tumor of high grade m alignancy but the death occurred immediately after laser therapy to re lieve obstruction in a patient with acute asphyxia. None of the other patients died of tumour progression and the longest follow up (eleven years of survival) involved a patient with a bronchial form and a high grade malignancy with glandular invasion. Even mucoepidermoid rumours of high grade malignancy have a good prognosis and it is a cardinal p oint to clearly distinguish these forms from adenosquamous cancers. Ne vertheless it has been suggested that adenosquamous and mucoepidermoid carcinomas could have a common origin and be the extremes of the same overall disorder just as the image we have of neuroendocrine rumours whose spectrum extends from carcinoid tumours to small cell cancers.