Benign dermal eccrine cylindroma. A pitfall in the cytologic diagnosis of adenoid cystic carcinoma.

Aspiration cytology from four benign dermal eccrine cylindromas and five adenoid cystic carcinomas were compared. These two lesions were found to have so much in common morphologically that they may be indistinguishable on a purely cytologic basis. Accordingly, we recommend a restricted excision to obtain a histopathologic diagnosis before more extensive surgery is performed whenever a lesion is cytologically consistent with adenoid cystic carcinoma but clinically shows a picture that does not exclude dermal eccrine cylindroma.