Abstract
Fine needle aspirates (FNAs) of the head and neck can be divided into five categories: Thyroid, salivary gland, lymph nodes, skin, and bone/soft tissue. The vast majority of mass lesions in the head and neck are benign; however, 5 % of pediatric neoplasms occur in head and neck region. In the thyroid, the majority of lesions are benign; however, in comparison with adults, there is a higher rate of malignancy in the pediatric population. Salivary gland lesions in children and adolescents consist predominantly of pleomorphic adenoma, followed by mucoepidermoid carcinoma and acinic cell carcinoma. Skin lesions in the head and neck include cysts, inflammatory processes, and vascular malformations. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is a rare epithelial tumor that is associated with Epstein–Barr virus infection and often presents at a high stage in children. Bone and soft tissue are discussed briefly with emphasis on lesions that are prominent in the head and neck including Langerhans cell histiocytosis and rhabdomyosarcoma. Given the wide range of diagnostic possibilities, an FNA can be very helpful in delineating the type of lesion, and thereby guide management, with minimal risk to these patients.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Liu ES, Bernstein JM, Sculerati N, Wu HC. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of pediatric head and neck masses. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2001;60:135–40.
Goins MR, Beasley MS. Pediatric neck masses. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am. 2012;24:457–68.
Osipoff JN, Wilson TA. Consultation with the specialist: thyroid nodules. Pediatr Rev. 2012;33:75–81.
Rallison ML, Dobyns BM, Meikle AW, Bishop M, Lyon JL, Stevens W. Natural history of thyroid abnormalities: prevalence, incidence, and regression of thyroid diseases in adolescents and young adults. Am J Med. 1991;91:363–70.
Corrias A, Mussa A, Baronio F, Arrigo T, Salerno M, Segni M, et al. Diagnostic features of thyroid nodules in pediatrics. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2010;164:714–9.
Dinauer C, Francis GL. Thyroid cancer in children. Endocrinol Metab Clin North Am. 2007;36:779–806.
Gupta A, Ly S, Castroneves LA, Frates MC, Benson CB, Feldman HA, et al. A standardized assessment of thyroid nodules in children confirms higher cancer prevalence than in adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2013;98:3238–45.
Scholz S, Smith JR, Chaignaud B, Shamberger RC, Huang SA. Thyroid surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston: a 35-year single-institution experience. J Pediatr Surg. 2011;46:437–42.
Stevens C, Lee JKP, Sadatsafavi M, Blair GK. Pediatric thyroid fine-needle aspiration cytology: a meta-analysis. J Pediatr Surg. 2009;44:2184–91.
Ali SZ, Cibas ES, editors. The Bethesda system for reporting thyroid cytopathology. New York: Springer; 2010.
Bently AA, Gillespie C, Malis D. Evaluation and management of a solitary thyroid nodule in a child. Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 2003;36:117–28.
La Quaglia MP, Black T, Holcomb GW, Sklar C, Azizkhan RG, Haase GM, et al. Differentiated thyroid cancer: clinical characteristics, treatment, and outcome in patients under 21 years of age who present with distant metastases. A Report from the Surgical Discipline Committee of the Children’s Cancer Group. J Pediatr Surg. 2000;35:955–60.
Harshan M, Crapanzano JP, Aslan DL, Vazquez MF, Saqi A. Papillary thyroid carcinoma with atypical histiocytoid cells on fine-needle aspiration. Diagn Cytopathol. 2009;37:244–50.
Monaco SE, Pantanowitz L, Khalbuss WE, Benkovich VA, Ozolek J, Nikoforova MN, et al. Cytomorphological and molecular genetic findings in pediatric thyroid fine-needle aspiration. Cancer Cytopathol. 2012;120:342–50.
Fenton CL, Lukes Y, Nicholson D, Dinauer CA, Francis GL, Tuttle RM. The ret/PTC mutations are common in sporadic papillary thyroid carcinoma of children and young adults. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2000;85:1170–5.
Niedziela M. Pathogenesis, diagnosis and management of thyroid nodules in children. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2006;13:427–53.
Penko K, Livezey J, Fenton C, Patel A, Nicholson D, Flora M, et al. BRAF mutations are uncommon in papillary thyroid cancer of young patients. Thyroid. 2005;15:320–5.
Orvidas LJ, Kasperbauer JL, Lewis JE, Olsen KD, Lesnick TG. Pediatric parotid masses. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2000;126:177–84.
Deng R, Huang X, Hao J, Ding J, Hu Q. Salivary gland neoplasms in children. J Craniofac Surg. 2013;24:5111–3.
Sultan I, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Al-Sharabati S, Guzzo M, Casanova M, Ferrari A. Salivary gland carcinomas in children and adolescents: a population-based study, with comparison to adult cases. Head Neck. 2011;33:1476–81.
Fang Q, Shi S, Li Z, Zhang X, Liu F, Sun C. Epithelial salivary gland tumors in children: a twenty-five-year experience of 122 patients. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2013;77:1252–4.
Guzzo M, Ferrari A, Marcon I, Collini P, Gandola L, Pizzi N, et al. Salivary gland neoplasms in children: the experience of the istituto nazionale tumori of Milan. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2006;47:806–10.
Griffith CC, Pai RK, Schneider F, Duvvuri U, Ferris RL, Johnson JT, Seethala RR. Salivary gland tumor fine-needle aspiration cytology: a proposal for a risk stratification classification. Am J Clin Pathol. 2015;143:839–53.
Jaryszak EM, Shah RK, Bauman NM, Howell RJ, Rossi CT, Preciado DA. Unexpected pathologies in pediatric parotid lesions: management paradigms revisited. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2011;75:558–63.
Keelawat S, Shuangshoti S, Kittikowit W, Lerdlum S, Thorner PS. Epithelioid sarcoma of the parotid gland of a child. Pediatr Dev Pathol. 2009;12(4):301–6.
Liu B, Liu JY, Zhang WF, Jia J. Pediatric parotid tumors: clinical review of 24 cases in a Chinese population. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2012;76:1007–11.
Vedrine PO, Coffinet L, Temam S, Montagne K, Lapeyre M, Oberlin O, et al. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma of salivary glands in the pediatric age group: 18 clinical cases including 11 second malignant neoplasms. Head Neck. 2006;28:827–33.
Anne S, Teot LA, Mandell DL. Fine needle aspiration biopsy: role in diagnosis of pediatric head and neck masses. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2008;72:1547–53.
Liu ES, Bernstein JM, Sculerati N, Wu HC. Fine needle aspiration biopsy of pediatric head and neck masses. Int J Pediatr Otorhinolaryngol. 2001;60:135–40.
Rapkiewicz A, Le BT, Simsir A, Cangiarella J, Levine P. Spectrum of head and neck lesions diagnosed by fine-needle aspiration cytology in the pediatric population. Cancer Cytopathol. 2007;111(4):242–51.
Thapliyal N, Joshi U, Vaibhav G, Sayana A, Srivastava AK, Jha RS. Pilomatrixoma mimicking small round cell tumor on fine needle aspiration cytology: a case report. Acta Cytol. 2008;52:627–30.
Goins MR, Beasley MS. Pediatric neck masses. Oral Maxillofac Surg Clin North Am. 2012;24:457–68.
Huh WW, Fitzgerald N, Mahajan A, Sturgis EM, Raney RB, Anderson PM. Pediatric sarcomas and related tumors of the head and neck. Cancer Treat Rev. 2011;37:431–9.
Dickson PV, Davidoff AM. Malignant neoplasms of the head and neck. Semin Pediatr Surg. 2006;15:92–8.
Matusik J, Wiberg A, Sloboda J, Anderson O. Fine needle aspiration in nodular fasciitis of the face. Cytopathology. 2002;13:128–32.
Bemrich-Stolz CJ, Kelly DR, Meunsterer OJ, Pressey JG. Single institution series of nodular fasciitis in children. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2010;32:354–7.
Saad RS, Takei H, Lipscomb J, Ruiz B. Nodular fasciitis of parotid region: a pitfall in the diagnosis of pleomorphic adenomas on fine-needle aspiration cytology. Diagn Cytopathol. 2005;33:191–4.
Ayan I, Kaytan E, Ayan N. Childhood nasopharyngeal carcinoma: from biology to treatment. Lancet Oncol. 2003;4:12–21.
Badalian-Very G, Vergilio JA, Degar BA, MacConaill LE, Brandner B, Calicchio ML, Kuo FC, Ligon AH, Stevenson KE, Kehoe SM, Garraway LA, Hahn WC, Meyerson M, Fleming MD, Rollins BJ. Recurrent BRAF mutations in Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Blood. 2010;116:1919–23.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sengupta, A.L. (2017). Head and Neck. In: Monaco, S., Teot, L. (eds) Pediatric Cytopathology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53441-0_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53441-0_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-53439-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-53441-0
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)