title: Fine-needle aspiration cytology of pancreatoblastoma in a young woman: report of a case and review of the literature.
abstract: Pancreatoblastoma is a rare tumor and has been reported only four times in the cytologic literature, three times in fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy and once in an imprint of resected tumor. We are reporting the fourth case of FNA cytology with immunohistochemical and electron microscopic studies. The patient is a 24-yr-old African American woman, who presented with a pancreatic mass, hepatic masses, and abdominal lymphadenopathy. The aspiration smears of the liver mass showed a biphasic tumor composed of bland-appearing primitive spindled stromal fragments with "spider-web"-like long fibrils interconnecting with sharply angulated islands of cohesive epithelium. At high power, the epithelium is composed of medium-sized cells with round-to-oval vesicular nuclei with fine chromatin and one-to-two small nucleoli. The neuroendocrine component was demonstrated immunohistochemically with synaptophysin and chromogranin expressions. The acinar component and squamoid component were demonstrated ultrastructurally by the presence of 400-600 nm zymogen granules and tonofilaments. The literature was reviewed and the cytological features of all the four cases of pancreatoblastoma are summarized.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Lee-Ching
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Gurdip S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Sidhu
authors.forename: Nicholas D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Cassai
authors.forename: Grace C H
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D018267:Carcinoma, Acinar Cell / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000175:diagnosis; D003896:Desmosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007382:Intermediate Filaments / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D022142:Secretory Vesicles / Q000648:ultrastructure