Modern Pathology - Mucinous Nonneoplastic Cyst of the Pancreas: A Novel Nonneoplastic Cystic Change?

Modern Pathology - Mucinous Nonneoplastic Cyst of the Pancreas: A Novel Nonneoplastic Cystic Change?

INTRODUCTION
Cystic tumors of the pancreas may be either neoplastic or nonneoplastic. The predominant neoplastic types are intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms, mucinous cystic neoplasms, serous cystic adenomas, and solid pseudopapillary neoplasms (1). The remaining cystic tumors (the term cystic tumor denotes any cystic lump, regardless of whether it is neoplastic or not) comprise neoplasms, such as acinar cystadenocarcinomas, cystic endocrine tumors, dermoid cysts, and ductal adenocarcinomas with cystic features (2, 3). They also include nonneoplastic lesions, such as lymphoepithelial cysts and other types that have been given various names but are poorly characterized (2, 4, 5, 6).
Recently, we observed a special type of cystic lesion of the pancreas composed of mucinous cells that were not supported by an ovarian-like stroma and did not show any obvious neoplastic potential. Here we report the clinicopathological features of a series of five cases of these recently observed, novel cystic lesions of the pancreas.