Pancreatic fine-needle aspiration cytology in patients < 35-years of age: a retrospective review of 174 cases spanning a 17-year period.

Pancreatic lesions in young patients are relatively rare and, to our knowledge, the clinical value of pancreatic fine needle aspiration (FNA) in patients < 35 years of age has not been previously established by any other large retrospective studies. All pancreatic endoscopic ultrasound-guided FNA (EUS-FNA) cases performed on patients < 35 years of age were identified for a 17-year period (1994-2010). All FNAs and all available correlating surgical pathology reports were reviewed. There were a total of 174 cases of pancreatic FNA performed on 109 females and 65 males under the age of 35 (range: 8-34, mean: 27 years). The FNA diagnoses included 37 malignant, 114 negative, nine atypia/suspicious, and 14 cases that were nondiagnostic. Of the 37 malignant FNA cases, the diagnoses included 18 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNeT), 11 solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPN), five adenocarcinomas and three metastatic neoplasms. Histologic follow-up was available in 22 of the 37 malignant cases diagnosed by FNA, and the diagnosis was confirmed in 21 cases. One pancreatoblastoma was misclassified as SPN on EUS-FNA. False negative diagnoses were noted in three cases of low-grade mucinous cystic neoplasm and one case of PanNeT. The most common type of neoplasms diagnosed by EUS-FNA in patients < 35-year old is PanNeT, followed by SPN with both tumors accounting for 75% of all the neoplasms encountered in this age group. The sensitivity and specificity for positive cytology in EUS-FNA of the pancreas to identify malignancy and mucinous neoplasms were 90% and 100%, respectively. Diagn. Cytopathol. 2014;42:297-301. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.