Clear cell carcinoma of soft palate- A case report

Clear-cell carcinoma (CCC) of the salivary gland is a very rare malignancy. It is recently introduced in the WHO classification of salivary gland tumors. CCC is considered a low-grade tumor, which is commonly seen in elderly females. The most common intraoral sites affected by CCC are palate and tongue. CCC comprises 1% of all salivary gland tumors. CCC has a silent course and a limited nodal metastasis. A hyalinized variant of CCC has good prognosis and requires wide surgical excision with or without adjuvant radiotherapy. Microscopically, it is characterized by the presence of nests of glycogen-rich monomorphic clear cells within a hyalinized stroma. Immunohistochemistry analysis of CCC depicts tumor cells which are positive for epithelial markers and negative for S-100. Here, we report the case of a hyalinized CCC of minor glands of the palate which was misdiagnosed as poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma.