Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the breast

Mucoepidermoid carcinomas are very rare breast tumors. The morphology of this breast tumour is similar to its counterpart in the salivary gland. The first two cases reported were low-grade and neither patient had metastatic disease. Furthermore, none of the five patients with low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma reported by Fisher had axillary lymph node involvement and were alive with no evidence of disease 4 to 10 years after diagnosis and were considered of probable favourable prognosis. A high grade form of mucoepidermoid cancer might occur in the breast as it does in the salivary gland. All high-grade variant cases published had demonstrable lymph node or distant metastases and rapidly fatal outcomes. This report describes a case of high-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the breast with a disease-free interval of 5 years, despite of unfavourable histologic features at the time of diagnosis.