Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the parotid gland: a case report

We present the case of a patient with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the parotid gland. A 70-year-old female developed swelling and pain in the lower part of the left ear 18 months previously and had visited a local hospital. Fine-needle aspiration cytology revealed no definitive diagnosis, but incisional biopsy under local anesthesia suggested epithelioid hemangioendothelioma. She was then transferred to our hospital, where she underwent total extirpation of the left parotid gland, left cervical lymph node dissection, and postoperative radiation therapy. However, she died from distant metastases 13 months after surgery. No previous study has reported any case of distant metastasis or death due to epithelioid hemangioendothelioma of the parotid gland. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case report on distant metastasis and death due to the development of parotid gland cancer.