Abstract
Objective : The purpose of this paper is to clarify the cytologic findings of Warthin tumor-like papillary carcinoma (WTL-PC).
Study Design : We retrospectively examined cytologic specimens of 33 WTL-PC cases.
Results : In all cases we ascertained that a diagnosis of papillary carcinoma had been made but only two cases were suspicious for WTL-PC. All of the following were identified in 27 cases (81.8%) : 1) abundant lymphocytes and plasma cells ; 2) papillary configuration and sheet-like arrangement ; 3) tall columnar carcinoma cells showing a palisading pattern ; 4) eosinophilic cytoplasm ; and 5) a fine to coarse chromatin pattern that seemed to be characteristic of this subtype. We noted the presence of carcinoma cells showing pseudokeratinization or clear cytoplasm.
Conclusions : There were no particularly significant cytological findings when making a diagnosis of this subtype. However, we should be aware of the cytologic findings which can distinguish it from the tall cell variant and diffuse sclerosing variant of papillary carcinoma, the oxyphilic variant of follicular neoplasm, and Hashimoto disease.
