Abdominal Mucinous Cystic Neoplasm in a Male Child

Abstract

Mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCNs) make up a morphologic family of similar appearing tumors arising in the ovary and various extraovarian sites, including the pancreas, hepatobiliary tract, paratesticular soft tissues, and mesentery. Other than the uncommon mucinous cystadenoma of the ovary presenting in adolescence, MCNs are rarely seen by the pediatric pathologist. The present case is a 5-year-old boy with an abdominal mass appearing to arise in the mesentery of the small intestine. Because of its unresectability, a generous biopsy was performed and disclosed a MCN with focal complex papillary architecture in the absence of appreciable cytologic atypia or invasion into the wall. Like other MCNs, this tumor had an inhibin-positive, ovarian-like stroma that was nonreactive for estrogen and progesterone receptors. Only 1 other case of a mesenteric MCN has been reported to date in a child and none in a male. The MCN of the mesentery joins other, somewhat more common cystic lesions of the omentum and mesentery presenting in childhood.

Mucinous Cystadenoma: A Rare Hepatic Tumor in a Child

“…On imaging, lesions may be unilocular or multilocular and resemble abscesses, echinococcal cysts, teratomas, hematomas, necrotic tumors, and polycystic disease ( 1 , 2 , 10 , 11 , 13 ). Intrahepatic lesions predominate over biliary lesions, and the majority of masses are found in the right lobe of the liver ( 3 , 4 ).…”

“…Histologically, MCAs are usually lined with cuboidal or non-ciliated columnar cells, with basal nuclei and mucin-containing cytoplasm ( 1 , 4 , 13 ). The epithelial cells lining MCAs contain variable dysplasia; therefore, they are categorized into low- and high-grade dysplasia.…”

A Mucinous Cystic Neoplasm of the Mesocolon Showing Features of Malignancy

“…The majority of cases of MCN have been described in women [2]. They are commonly detected incidentally but can present with chronic abdominal pain, distension, or an abdominal mass.…”

Mucinous cystic neoplasms of the mesentery: a case report and review of the literature

“…There are thirteen documented cases of mesenteric MCNs in the literature prior to this report (Table 1 ). Five of those originated from the mesentery of the small intestine [ 15 , 18 , 51 - 53 ], one from the mesoappendix [ 54 ] and seven from the mesocolon [ 55 - 60 ]. The only male patient was a five year old child with an unresectable neoplasm [ 15 ].…”