Case Study Report

Summer Dolezel, Marley McHenry, and Rachel Hopson

The case report that we have studied involved a 25 year old patient who discovered a

painless, less that one centimeter in diameter, pink mass on her soft palate. Given the choices of

pleomorphic adenoma, mucocele, adenoid cystic carcinoma, monomorphic adenoma, and

mucoepidermoid carcinoma, we did some research and discovered the diagnosis.

Our first choice, a pleomorphic adenoma, is quickly seen to be a lesion which causes the

patient to have a hard time swallowing. It is defined as a benign mixed tumor conformed of

myoepithelial cells and epithelial cells. It is also known to be moveable and occur on the hard

palate, floor of the mouth, retromolar area, and pharynx. The lesion is noted in a specific case

study to be eight millimeters wide. Given that our patients lesion was less than one centimeter,

had no swelling, painless, and was multicellular, this lesion seemed to be the most agreeable

diagnosis.

Our next choice, a mucocele, is usually seen on the lower lip and is described as a

mucous filled phenomenon. This lesion is mainly seen as a normal or bluish color, moveable, and

can range from a few millimeters to a few centimeters. The mucocele can relate to our patients

lesion by being painless, but we realized it could not be a mucocele because there was no

swelling, or mobility involved with our patients lesion.

Thirdly, an adenoid cystic carcinoma, is described as a malignant tumor that occurs

usually in a patients fifties or sixties. Our patient is 25, so we felt strong about ruling this lesion

out. Looking into more research we find differences such as a specific adenoid cystic carcinoma

being six centimeters in diameter and a patient on medication. Although there is no pain
associated with either lesion, we concluded there were far more differences to consider this a

diagnosis of our patient.

The monomorphic adenoma is defined as a salivary gland tumor that is caused from a

proliferation of a single type of cell. It is usually presented as a slow growing mass that is

painless. Also, these tumors are seen to be less than two centimeters in diameter. This lesion

showed the most common symptoms and similarities to our patients lesion, except the major

difference of this lesion is it only involves one cell. As we compared all of our lesions we had

researched, we decided that a monomorphic adenoma is not our patients diagnosis.

To be sure, we decided to research a mucoepidermoid carcinoma. It is defined as a

common malignant tumor in the salivary gland. The symptoms shown in a patient was those of

swelling on the floor of the mouth, painful, and palatable lymph nodes. Soon in our research, we

see major differences happening with our patient. In our patient there is no swelling, it is in a

different location, and the lymph nodes are normal.

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http://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2015/15595.6912tanley A. Boucree Jr. DDS, MD, MPH