There is presently no uniformly accepted grading system for mucoepidermoid
carcinoma, largely due to a lack of consensus as to what criteria should be
used to Formulate histological grades. The present study was undertaken to
determine the relationship between histological grade, clinical stage and
survival in these neoplasms. Clinical and histological data from 34 patient
s with mucoepidermoid carcinoma were reviewed. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma was
most common in the parotid gland (44.1%), while 25% of patients had tumors
in the minor salivary glands. Low, intermediate, and high-grade neoplasms
accounted for 61.7%, 26.5%, and 11.8% of tumors, respectively. There was a
general trend towards increasing clinical aggressiveness with increasing hi
stological grade. Similarly, postoperative tumor recurrences were marginall
y more common in high-grade than in low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinomas. Ho
wever, both of these findings were statistically insignificant, mainly due
to small sample size, late clinical presentation, poor clinical follow-up,
incomplete management and incomplete records. These factors explain the rel
atively low survival figures in the present study, as compared to higher su
rvival figures in white patients with mucoepidermoid carcinoma.