A review of the literature on tumors of the small salivary and mucous glands reveals that mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the upper respiratory system is a very rare occurrence. Three such cases are reported in detail, representing 3% of all tumors of small salivary and mucous gland origin recorded by the authors over a period of 20 years. This incidence is high. Follow-up was from 3 to 12 1/2 years.
A case in point: a middle-aged male patient had no serious complaints for over thirty years after a nonradical operation of a thyroid tumor, in spite of disseminate lung metastases which started developing a few years after the operation.
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