Hindawi Publishing Corporation Case Reports in Otolaryngology Volume 2013, Article ID 925630, 3 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/925630 Case Report Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Tongue Base Mimicking an Ectopic Thyroid Salvatore Martellucci, 1 Giulio Pagliuca, 1 Marco de Vincentiis, 2 Chiara Rosato, 1 Ettore Scaini, 1 Camilla Gallipoli, 1 and Andrea Gallo 1 1 ENT Section, Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 00192 Rome, Italy 2 ENT Section, Department of Sense Organs, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 00192 Rome, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to Salvatore Martellucci; salvomartello@live.it Received 20 December 2012; Accepted 9 January 2013 Academic Editors: E. Mevio, Y. Orita, and G. Zhou Copyright © 2013 Salvatore Martellucci et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A 69-year-old woman with mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the tongue base came under our observation complaining of repeated episodes of haemoptysis. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the tongue base gives rise to a rather vague and aspeciic symptomatology. Early symptoms include foreign body sensation in the oral cavity, undeined paraesthesia, and sialorrhoea. With the progression of disease, dysphagia, otalgia, and painful swallowing are usually referred. We report a case of mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the tongue base mimicking an ectopic thyroid. 1. Introduction Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is a common malignant salivary gland neoplasm presumed to arise from the reserve cells of salivary gland ducts. his malignancy originates in both major and minor salivary glands, although it gen- erally occurs in the parotid gland (89.6%), followed by submandibular gland (8.4%). Intraorally, it shows a strong predilection for the palate [1–3]. MEC was rarely reported in the tongue base [4, 5]. In this site, a diferential diagnosis must be made not only with other malignancies but also with congenital and benign lesions such as ectopic tissues of thyroidal, epidermal, dermal, venous, and lymphatic origins [6–9]. We present a case of MEC of the tongue base showing the gross appearance of an ectopic thyroid and discuss its clinical presentation. 2. Case Report A 69-year-old woman came under our observation following episodes of emophtoe. During the previous 5 months, the patient experienced sialorrhoea and worsening dysphagia. Clinical examination revealed the presence of a large, nodu- lar formation with a smooth surface, richly vascularized, implanted in the midline of the tongue base (Figure 1). he macroscopic characteristics of the lesion suggested an ectopic thyroid diagnosis. CT imaging revealed a solid formation in the right area of the tongue base measuring 30 mm in diameter which occupied most of the oropharynx. No locore- gional adenomegalies were detected. A thyroid scintigraphy and an ultrasound examination were carried out in order to determine whether the thyroid was in its normal location or in an ectopic one. No thyroid tissue was described at the tongue base, and the thyroid gland was described to be in its normal position. A selective arteriography of the external carotid arteries revealed that the mass at the tongue base was supplied by a rich vascular network deriving from the terminal branches of the tongue’s artery bilaterally and by the maxillary artery from the let side. Selective embolization of the branches feeding the tumor was carried out with the aim of reducing haemorrhages and minimizing the risks of bleeding during a bioptic procedure. he histological exami- nation showed the presence of a low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma originating from the minor salivary glands of the tongue base. he patient, once informed of the diagnosis and of the surgical treatment required to remove the neoplasm, refused to undergo any kind of therapy and was therefore