Fine needle aspiration diagnosis of transitional cell carcinoma metastaticto the brain - A case report

BACKGROUND: Transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) rarely metastasizes to the br ain. In this case, aspiration of a cystic brain lesion was performed and a cytologic diagnosis made. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first r eported case of TCC metastatic to the brain diagnosed by fine needle aspira tion. CASE: A 72-year-old male with a past medical history of invasive TCC, colon ic adenocarcinoma and prostatic adenocarcinoma presented with a large, righ t, temporal, cystic mass. Fine needle aspiration tons performed intraoperat ively, and a cytologic diagnosis of metastatic TCC was rendered and confirm ed by subsequent tissue examination. CONCLUSION: Intraoperative fine needle aspiration of cystic tumors can be u seful in identifying the primary site. nle cytologic features of intracereb ral metastatic TCC mil differ significantly from those observed in urinary tract specimens of high grade TCC. A predominance Of large fragments of mal ignant cells with numermitotic figures and apoptotic bodies was seen in the former. The background showed high grade, single transitional cells simila r to those observed in urinary tract samples of TCC.