Thymic Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Thymic Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Adv Anat Pathol. 2019 Nov;26(6):341-345 Authors: Hamza A, Younes AI, Kalhor N Abstract Thymic mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a rare tumor that remains poorly characterized and a diagnostic challenge. The aim of this review is to characterize this tumor in a larger cohort of patients using all the available cases in the literature. We systematically searched the PubMed and Scopus database for primary thymic mucoepidermoid carcinoma. A total of 24 studies were included in the final analysis. A total of 41 patients were identified; 23 (56.1%) were male and 18 (43.9%) were female. Mean age was 49.8±21.3 years. Mean tumor size was 7.6±3.5 cm. Twenty (66.7%) were low grade and 8 (26.7%) were high grade. In total, 20 (55.6%) patients were treated with surgery alone. Nodal dissection was performed in 4 cases only. Two patients had MAML2 gene rearrangement and 2 were negative. Follow-up time varied from 2 to 93 months. A total of 13 (44.8%) patients died of disease with a median survival of 12 months. There seems to be a bimodal age distribution with peaks between second and third decades of life, and between sixth and eight decades. Lymph node sampling is frequently not performed; however, we recommend performing it, as it may lead to more accurate staging. There is limited data regarding the utility of MAML2 gene rearrangement in the thymic location. Histologic grade a...
Source: Adv Data - Category: Epidemiology Authors: Tags: Adv Anat Pathol Source Type: research