Open AccessPancreatic metastasis in a case of small cell lung carcinoma: Diagnostic role of fine-needle aspiration cytology and immunocytochemistry
Author(s) -
Dilip K. Das,
Abdulaziz T. Muqim,
Bahiya I Haji,
Khalida Khalid Al-Bishi,
Rana Abdulghani
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of cytology/journal of cytology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.267
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 0974-5165
pISSN - 0970-9371
DOI - 10.4103/0970-9371.86361
Subject(s) - medicine , pathology , fine needle aspiration , small cell carcinoma , metastasis , carcinoma , chromogranin a , cytokeratin , pancreas , biopsy , cytology , adenocarcinoma , small cell lung carcinoma , synaptophysin , metastatic carcinoma , lung , cancer , immunohistochemistry
Small cell lung carcinoma represents a group of highly malignant tumors giving rise to early and widespread metastasis at the time of diagnosis. However, the pancreas is a relatively infrequent site of metastasis by this neoplasm, and there are only occasional reports on its fine needle aspiration (FNA) cytology diagnosis. A 66-year-old man presented with extensive mediastinal lymphadenopathy and a mass in the pancreatic tail. Ultrasound-guided FNA smears from the pancreatic mass contained small, round tumor cells with extensive nuclear molding. The cytodiagnosis was metastatic small cell carcinoma. Immunocytochemical staining showed that a variable number of neoplastic cell were positive for cytokeratin, chromogranin A, neurone-specific enolase and synaptophysin but negative for leukocyte common antigen. The trans-bronchial needle aspiration was non-diagnostic, but biopsy was suspicious of a small cell carcinoma. This case represents a rare metastatic lesion in the pancreas from small cell lung carcinoma, diagnosed by FNA cytology.