The study was performed to determine the frequency and origin for metastatic disease to the pancreas as found in an endoscopic ultrasound directed fine-needle aspiration series. The records of the Departments of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and the David Geffen School of Medicine were electronically searched for all fine-needle aspirates obtained from pancreatic masses between January 1, 2002 and March 31, 2010. All cases with a diagnosis of metastatic disease were reviewed and whenever possible correlated with subsequent resection specimens. A total of 17 metastatic malignancies to the pancreas were detected in pancreatic FNAs representing 0.73% of all cases. Primaries included eight renal cell carcinomas, one medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, four lymphomas, one alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, one squamous cell carcinoma derived from the esophagus, and a second squamous cell carcinoma originating from a lung primary and a small cell carcinoma of the lung. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma was the most frequent metastasis to the pancreas representing 47% of metastatic lesions detected by FNA. The metastatic deposits could be detected in the pancreas as many as 10 years following the original diagnosis and resection of the renal cell carcinoma.
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