They are firm, nodular, and usually fixed to adjacent tissue, but they often have a poorly defined periphery. Pain and neural involvement are common, and eventually, the overlying skin or mucosa may become ulcerated. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma is the most common malignancy, typically occurring in persons in the 3rd to 6th decade of life. This cancer may occur deep within the bone, often in the wall of a dentigerous cyst. All types of mucoepidermoid carcinoma may metastasize.
Treatment consists of wide excision and postoperative radiation.
Treatment is wide surgical excision, but local recurrence is common. Lung metastases and death are likely. Acinic cell carcinoma, a common parotid tumor, occurs in persons in the 5th or 6th decade of life. The prognosis is favorable after wide excision. Carcinoma ex mixed tumor is usually adenocarcinoma arising in a preexisting benign mixed tumor.