Mucinous adenocarcinoma of the appendix is a very rare, slow growing, well-differentiated epithelial neoplasm of the appendix characterized by abundant mucin production. Clinically, it presents as acute appendicitis (with abdominal pain, fever, leukocytosis) or as pseudomyxoma peritonei (wide-spread presence of mucin within the peritoneal cavity), however some patients may be completely asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis. In many cases, a second gastrointestinal malignancy is present.

A malignant tumor arising from epithelial cells. Carcinomas that arise from glandular epithelium are called adenocarcinomas, those that arise from squamous epithelium are called squamous cell carcinomas, and those that arise from transitional epithelium are called transitional cell carcinomas (NCI Thesaurus).