Bronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma in children

Three cases of children, aged 7, 12 and 13 years, respectively, with bronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma are presented. All patients were primarily misdiagnosed as pneumonitis following common symptoms of prolonged fever, cough, expectoration, and indirect signs of bronchial obstruction by chest roentgenogram, before the tumours in the main bronchi were revealed by chest computed tomography and bronchoscopy. After undergoing lobectomy and systematic lymph node dissection, all three patients recovered uneventfully. Histologically, all the cases were low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma; one case additionally had mediastinal lymph node metastasis. The patients have remained in good health during a follow-up of between 1.5 and 6 years. Despite its extremely rare occurrence in childhood, the possibility of bronchial mucoepidermoid carcinoma should be kept in mind when encountering a child presenting with symptoms of recurrent pneumonia.