Fine needle aspiration diagnosis of a pulmonary metastasis from a cutaneous adenoid cystic carcinoma. A case report.

BACKGROUND

Primary cutaneous adenoid cystic carcinomas (CACC) rarely metastasize to the lung. The few documented cases have been diagnosed by surgical biopsy.

CASE

An 82-year-old female presented with an enlarging lung mass 15 years after being diagnosed with CACC. The diagnosis of metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma was made following a computed tomography-guided fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy.

CONCLUSION

Metastatic CACC in the lung can be diagnosed by FNA. Knowledge of the patient's clinical history and morphologic variants of CACC is important in making the diagnosis.