Summary

Background: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC), which is primarily found in the salivary glands, is rarely seen in the breast. These tumors usually develop from squamous and mucus-secreting cells. Histological grading is an important prognostic factor. Case Report: We present herein a case of a 69-year-old female patient with a painful mass in the left breast. Of importance is that, in addition to MEC, the patient had a wide area of scar tissue secondary to a burn that completely occupied the left bottom quadrant of the abdomen and retracted the left nipple up to the left upper quadrant. Fine needle aspiration biopsy was negative, and a lumpectomy was performed. Because the pathology results were consistent with MEC, modified radical mastectomy with subsequent adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy was performed. The patient remained disease-free for 12 months after the treatment. In addition to a discussion of this case, we performed a review of the clinicopathological characteristics of 30 cases with breast MEC reported in the English language literature between 1979 and 2010. Conclusions: MEC of the breast is a rarely seen tumor, and this is the first report of MEC in a breast affected by burn scars.

AIM: To document unusual findings in appendectomy specimens.

METHODS: The clinicopathological data of 5262 patients who underwent appendectomies for presumed acute appendicitis from January 2006 to October 2010 were reviewed retrospectively. Appendectomies performed as incidental procedures during some other operation were excluded. We focused on 54 patients who had unusual findings in their appendectomy specimens. We conducted a literature review via the PubMed and Google Scholar databases of English language studies published between 2000 and 2010 on unusual findings in appendectomy specimens.

RESULTS: Unusual findings were determined in 54 (1%) cases by histopathology. Thirty were male and 24 were female with ages ranging from 15 to 84 years (median, 32.2 ± 15.1 years). Final pathology revealed 37 cases of enterobiasis, five cases of carcinoids, four mucinous cystadenomas, two eosinophilic infiltrations, two mucoceles, two tuberculosis, one goblet-cell carcinoid, and one neurogenic hyperplasia. While 52 patients underwent a standard appendectomy, two patients who were diagnosed with tuberculous appendicitis underwent a right hemicolectomy. All tumors were located at the distal part of the appendix with a mean diameter of 6.8 mm (range, 4-10 mm). All patients with tumors were alive and disease-free during a mean follow-up of 17.8 mo. A review of 1366 cases reported in the English literature is also discussed.

CONCLUSION: Although unusual pathological findings are seldom seen during an appendectomy, all appendectomy specimens should be sent for routine histopathological examination.