The road to discovery of an uncommon tracheobronchial tumor.

It took nearly 50 years to comprehend the histogenesis and the nature of mucoepidermoid tumors. This story began in 1945 with the publication of a 24-page article, containing 18 photomicrographs and 2 tables, on “mucoepidermoid” tumors of the salivary glands [1]. The principal writers were pathologists, Fred W. Stewart (1894-1991) and Frank W. Foote (1911-1989), of the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York City (Fig. 1). Among the 700 major and minor salivary gland tumors they had diagnosed during a period of 18 years, there were 45 tumors with a distinct combination of epidermoid (non-squamous pearl-forming) and glandular (mucinous) differentiation. Consequently, they coined the descriptive term “mucoepidermoid.” Stewart and Foote traced the origin of the mucoepidermoid tumors to the salivary ducts. They separated the 45 tumors into 2 groups, benign (26 cases) and malignant (19 cases). The benign tumors were predominantly composed of well-differentiated mucous glands and minute foci of epidermoid and intermediate (basal or basaloid) cells. The malignant tumors were dominated by epidermoid and intermediate cells, with occasional nests of Address correspondence to Steven I. Hajdu, M.D., 1759 Drumcliff Court, Westlake Village, CA 91361-1636, USA: tel 805-496-0691, fax 850-496-0620. Fig. 1. Fred W. Stewart (1894-1991) (left) and Frank W. Foote (1911-1989) (right) in the office they shared during the 1960s in the Department of Pathology at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, the present Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center, on East 68th Street, in New York City. Note the 2 microscopes on the 2 side-by-side desks.