Intraductal papillary carcinoma of the parotid gland with low malignancy

A peculiar case of papillary carcinoma arising in the parotid gland is reported. A 68-year-old woman presented with a right, painless, parotid mass, measuring approximately 3 cm in greatest diameter. A conservative parotidectomy was performed. Histologically, the neoplasm showed exophytic papillary projections into a cavity. The cells were focally suggestive of epidermoidal differentiation, whereas a transitional differentiation was noted in other portions, as in bladder papilloma. Immunohistochemical studies showed strong positivity of the neoplastic cells for cytokeratin and weak positivity for PCNA and Mib-1. We classified this neoplasm among the papillary tumors with a low-grade of malignancy.