CYTOLOGIC FEATURES OF SOLID AND CYSTIC TUMOR OF THE PANCREAS

OBJECTIVE: To describe the cytologic features of solid and cystic tumo r of the pancreas. STUDY DESIGN: Cytologic features of four cases of s olid and cystic tumor of the pancreas (SCT) were reported and compared with those of three cases of islet cell tumor of the pancreas. RESULT S: Aspiration and imprint cytology of the tumor cells obtained from th ree cases of SCT showed papillary structures or rosette formations in part and demonstrated uniformly round to oval nuclei that contained fi nely granular chromatin, a fairly distinct nucleolus and a scant to mo derate amount of granular or vesicular cytoplasm. Another case of SCT consisted of multinucleated giant cells with coherent chromatin as wel l as mononuclear cells with nuclear grooves. Islet cell tumor consiste d mainly of clustered or isolated uniform mononuclear cells with roset te formations but without a papillary structure and occasional multinu cleated giant cells in all cases. The nuclei of islet cell tumors had peculiar, fine chromatin aggregates with a ''salt-and-pepper'' appeara nce and slightly enlarged nucleoli. CONCLUSION: SCT is cytologically d istinguishable from islet cell tumor in spite of having many cytologic features in common with it.