Low-grade MEC tends to have an excellent prognosis, although recurrence of the disease is possible.

[1] One early study from 1995 of a small number of patients (48 people) suggested a survival rate of 100% for patients with low grade MEC of the salivary glands. The median follow-up period for these patients was fifteen years.

[2] A later and larger study (125 patients) from 2012 suggested that low- and intermediate-grade MECs uniformly showed a favorable prognosis. In this study, the overall survival rate for patients with low-grade MEC was 92.8% and the disease-free survival rate for these patients was 88.3%. The median follow-up period in this study was about five years (with a range from 2-31 years).

[3] This information on prognosis is supported by a much larger study performed in 2014 involving a database of 2400 patients with MEC of the salivary glands. Results from this study indicate that the five year disease free survival rate for patients with low-grade MEC of the salivary glands is 98.8%. Factors indicating that patients will go on to have a poor prognosis include: high grade, increasing patient age, larger tumor size, metastasis to the lymph nodes, and distant metastasis.

[4] Thus, having a low grade MEC and being of a younger age are two factors associated with a more favorable prognosis.