Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2022; 10(32): 11921-11928
Published online Nov 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i32.11921
Endoscopic resection of bronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma in a young adult man: A case report and review of literature
Yong-Min Ding, Qing Wang
Yong-Min Ding, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Shengzhou People’s Hospital, Shengzhou 312499, Zhejiang Province, China
Qing Wang, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Ding YM and Wang Q contributed to the conception and design of the study and the final approval of the version of the article; Ding YM contributed to the acquisition and analysis of the data; Wang Q contributed to the interpretation of the data and the article writing.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81870018.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to disclose.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist(2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Qing Wang, MD, Doctor, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, No. 79 Qinchun Road, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. wqingss@zju.edu.cn
Received: June 20, 2022
Peer-review started: June 20, 2022
First decision: September 9, 2022
Revised: September 22, 2022
Accepted: October 17, 2022
Article in press: October 17, 2022
Published online: November 16, 2022
Processing time: 132 Days and 2.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Primary tracheobronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), derived from salivary mucus glands, is an uncommon neoplasm in adults. At present, surgery is still the preferred treatment for adult bronchial MEC, although it may cause significant trauma and loss of lung function. Here, we report a patient with endobronchial MEC who received the interventional bronchoscopic therapy to remove the neoplasm and no recurrence occurred during follow-up.

CASE SUMMARY

A 28-year-old man was admitted to our unit with mild hemoptysis for 3 d. Physical examination did not show any abnormal signs, and the serological indexes were all in the normal range. Chest computed tomography (CT) indicated an intraluminal nodule in the bronchus intermedius with homogeneous density and a well-defined margin. Upon fiberoptic bronchoscopy, an endobronchial pedunculated polypoid was discovered without submucosal involvement. As the neoplasm was confined to the bronchus, interventional bronchoscopy was performed to remove the mass by high-frequency electric knife and laser resection. Tissue was sampled and histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of low-grade MEC. As the proliferation index was low, no further treatment was given. During 2 years of follow-up, the patient’s condition was good and no relapse was discovered under fluorescence bronchoscopy or CT scan.

CONCLUSION

Interventional bronchoscopy can be considered for treatment of low-grade bronchial MEC, with few complications and preserved lung function.

Keywords: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma; Interventional bronchoscopic therapy; Intraluminal nodule; Airway tumor; Bronchoscopy; Case report

Core Tip: At present, surgery is still the mainstay of treatment for primary pulmonary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), although it will cause significant trauma and loss of lung function. We report a case with MEC in the bronchus intermedius who received interventional bronchoscopy to remove the mass successfully. Our results indicate the effectiveness and safety of the interventional bronchoscopic therapy in the treatment of low-grade bronchial MEC.