Efficacy of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in Diagnosis of Salivary Gland Tumors

Abstract

Introduction: Masses of the head and neck comprise a variety of benign and malignant tumors and tumor-like conditions, which may present diagnostic challenges to the surgeon and pathologist as well. Fine needle aspiration cytology is considered to be a valuable diagnostic tool used for preoperative evaluation of various masses in the head and neck region. However, its role is quite controversial for salivary gland tumour evaluation. This study was aimed to evaluate salivary gland fine-needle aspiration cytology for sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy in our medical center. Material and method: The present study included 58 patients with different salivary gland lesions who underwent preoperative fine-needle aspiration procedure followed by surgical procedure and histological examination. The cytological findings were compared with the final histological diagnosis and concordance assessed. Results: Of the 58 cases with salivary gland lesions, most of them involved parotid gland (72.41%), 91.38% were neoplasms and 8.62% were non-neoplastic lesions. Out of 53 neoplasms, 39 were benign and 14 were malignant salivary gland tumors. The sensitivity and a specificity of fine-needle aspiration cytology in differentiation malignancies from benign lesions was 100% and 97.73% respectively. In some situations cytological features could not provide correct tumor characterization. Conclusions: Fine-needle aspiration cytology is a simple and reliable technique for preoperative evaluation of salivary gland tumors with a high sensitivity diagnosis of malignant tumors, but a lower tumor type characterization. Due to the minimally invasive nature of the technique, fine-needle aspiration cytology offers valuable information for planning of subsequent therapeutic management.

Role of Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology in the Diagnosis of Parotid Gland Tumors: Analysis of 193 Cases

“…In the present study, the overall concordance between the cytology specimen and the final histological diagnosis was found to be 85%, which is comparable to the reported range in the literature. 4 5 When the various pathological entities in patients included in our study were assessed, we found that 7.2% non-neoplastic (inflammatory) lesions such as sialadenitis were reported. In the literature, this proportion has been reported differently.…”

“…Although this classification is complex, it has been widely accepted across the world because of its advantages regarding the prognostic and therapeutic aspects as, biologically, each tumor behaves differently from another. 4 …”

“…However, on the other hand, these tumors are easily accessible and are very good targets for fine needle aspiration. 4 …”

“… 7 In comparison to this, FNAC is an easily done procedure with minimum risks of complications and no risk of implantation of tumor cells. 4 8 …”