Peculiar artifacts mimicking carcinoma.

Artifacts that mimic malignancy may lead to diagnostic difficulty and can cause serious consequences. We present 2 cases received in consultation which demonstrated peculiar artifacts that closely mimicked carcinoma. In case 1, contaminating products of conception were confused with squamous cell carcinoma. In case 2, artifactual signet ring cells induced by procedural trauma were suspicious for signet ring cell carcinoma. In both cases, clinical correlation failed to completely exclude carcinoma, and limited tissue prevented use of ancillary studies. Our final resolution of these artifacts required lengthy and detailed morphologic analysis.