Primary Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Skin Expressing p63

Abstract

Primary mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the skin is an unusual neoplasm with few cases reported in the English medical literature. It has to be differentiated from adenosquamous carcinoma, usually a high-grade neoplasm with poorer outcome, and metastasis from a primary MEC arising elsewhere in the body. We report a 78-year-old woman with an abdominal skin lesion of recent onset. Histopathological examination revealed a dermal located carcinoma with variable proportions of squamous differentiation and goblet cells. The patient died in a very short time for an unrelated disease. Immunohistochemical study showed staining for cytokeratins (AE1AE3, 7, and 34betaE12), epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), and p63, whereas cytokeratins 18 and 20 and gross cystic disease fluid protein (GCDFP15) were negative. We conclude that primary MEC of the skin is usually a slow-growing neoplasm that should be differentiated from adenosquamous carcinoma. The immunohistochemical staining for p63 is helpful to differentiate primary and metastatic MEC in the skin.

Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Eyelid: A Rare Presentation

“…Primary MEC accounts for approximately 30% of all malignant tumors arising in major and minor salivary glands [1,2]. MEC was established as a unique salivary gland tumor in 1945 by Stewart et al, [4,5].…”

Primary cutaneous mucoepidermoid carcinoma

“…To the best of our knowledge, there are only several papers documenting treatment outcomes of 19 patients having primary cutaneous MEC [2,3] . Here, we described two cases of primary cutaneous MEC and reviewed current evidence in the literature.…”

“…Immunohistochemical staining for p63 has been suggested to use for differentiation of primary from metastatic MEC [2,3,9,10] . Unlike MEC originating from salivary gland, primary cutaneous MEC is more common in males [2,3] .…”

“…discovering cutaneous MEC was the use of immunostaining of p63 gene to differentiate cutaneous MEC from MEC metastatic to skin suggested [3,9] .…”

“…It most commonly arises from the salivary glands and accounts for 10%-30% of salivary gland tumour [1][2][3][4] . Apart from the major salivary glands, MEC is also relatively commonly found in the oral cavity, especially the palate, presumably arising from minor salivary glands [5] .…”