Benign Papillary Breast Mass Lesions: Favorable Outcomes with Surgical Excision or Imaging Surveillance.

BACKGROUND: There is no consensus regarding the management of benign papillary breast lesions diagnosed on image-guided core needle biopsy (IGCNB). METHODS: This is a retrospective review of 407 patients within Kaiser Permanente Northern California diagnosed between 2012 and 2013. The study focused on patients presenting with a mass lesion and who were diagnosed with a benign papillary breast lesion (BPBL) on IGCNB. Patients who did not have surgical excision of the IGCNB papilloma were followed for at least 2 years. RESULTS: A total of 327 patients (80%) underwent surgical excision, 61 patients (15%) had follow-up imaging, and 19 patients (5%) had no surgery or imaging. Overall among women with surgical excision, 9.5% had a high-risk lesion, 3.4% had in situ cancer, and 2.4% had invasive cancer. An upgrade to an in situ cancer or invasive cancer was more common among women with a lesion greater than 1 cm, a palpable breast mass, age > 50 years, or if the lesion was > 5 cm from the nipple. No cancers were diagnosed in 61 women followed by imaging surveillance. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest, single-cohort study of benign papillary mass lesions diagnosed on IGCNB. On surgical excision, the overall rate of upgrade to in situ cancer and invasive cancer was low, and almost all cancers diagnosed had favorable features. Because no cancers were found in women who were followed by imaging, we conclude that outcomes for BPBL diagnosed on IGCNB are favorable whether surgical excision or surveillance is the treatment choice.

Sclerosing Polycystic Adenosis: A Rare Tumor of the Salivary Glands.

CASE PRESENTATION: A 74-year-old woman presented to the Head and Neck Surgery clinic with a 4-year history of a slowly growing, painful, left-sided neck mass in the tail of the parotid gland. Fine-needle aspiration suggested well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. DISCUSSION AND RESULTS: The patient underwent a superficial parotidectomy and super-selective neck dissection (level 2). Pathology revealed a tumor consistent with sclerosing polycystic adenosis. CONCLUSION: Sclerosing polycystic adenosis is a rare inflammatory process that causes fibrocystic changes in the salivary gland. Apocrine-like metaplasia and epithelial atypia are common pathologic features. To our knowledge, a total of 51 cases have been described in the English-language literature.

Myelolipoma in the spleen: a rare discovery of extra-adrenal hematopoietic tissue.

Myelolipomas are benign tumors usually found within the adrenal gland. Approximately 50 cases of extra-adrenal myelolipomas have been reported in the literature and all are associated with additional lesions. Myelolipomas contain hematopoetic cells and adipose tissue. Most commonly, they are asymptomatic and are found incidentally on radiologic imaging. Here we report a case of an isolated intrasplenic myelolipoma as an incidental finding during the work up for myasthenia gravis in an otherwise asymptomatic man. The spleen and associated mass were excised during laparotomy and the patient had an uneventful recovery.

Comparison of ThinPrep versus conventional smear cytopreparatory techniques for fine-needle aspiration specimens of head and neck masses.

OBJECTIVES: Diagnostic accuracy of the ThinPrep process (Cytyc, Boxborough, MA) was compared with that of conventional (smear) cytopreparation for fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of head and neck masses. METHODS: In a prospective, randomized, single-blinded study, 209 patients served as their own controls and underwent 236 FNAs using ThinPrep and conventional (smear) cytopreparatory techniques. RESULTS: ThinPrep produced less air-drying artifact and less mechanical distortion than the conventional method. The conventional technique was diagnostic in 63% of samples; the ThinPrep technique was diagnostic in 55% of samples. When all results were combined, pathologists subjectively preferred the conventional technique but accepted use of ThinPrep as the only cytopreparatory technique for most head and neck masses. CONCLUSIONS: For adequately experienced cytopathologists, ThinPrep is acceptable for FNA of salivary masses, neck cysts, metastatic lymph nodes, and thyroid lesions. Conventional smear technique should be used for FNA of nonmetastatic lymphoid lesions. Use of ThinPrep can complement use of the conventional (smear) cytopreparatory technique when aspirate is nondiagnostic or bloody, when the patient has a blood-borne infectious disease, when the clinician is inexperienced, or when aspirate has entered the syringe.