[Cystic papillary tumor of the pancreas. Presentation of a case and review of the literature].

Cystic papillary tumor is an uncommon neoplasia of the pancreas; there are about 150 cases reported in the literature. It is usually encountered in young females and its clinical course is almost always benign, although with frequent recurrences and, exceptionally, metastases. The clinical presentation is non specific; the recommended treatment is surgical resection, which has excellent results. The pathologic findings, gross and microscopic, are quite characteristic: alternating solid, papillary and cystic areas. On the other hand, there is no agreement on the histogenesis of the tumor; the results of ultrastructural and immunohistochemical studies are not consistent. We present a case of cystic papillary tumor of the pancreas in a 58 year-old female, including histochemical and ultrastructural findings and a review of the clinical and pathological data reported in the literature. As the histochemical and ultrastructural findings are non specific, we believe, according to recent opinions, that this tumor could originate in a very primitive cell, able to differentiate to endocrine or exocrine elements, almost always incompletely.