Diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration cytology in Warthin tumors.

Background: Our aim was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for Warthin tumors of the parotid gland.

Methods: All cytologic diagnoses of Warthin tumor between 1990 and 2007 were correlated with available histology. In addition, our results were compared to current literature.

Results: In 310 cases, Warthin tumor was diagnosed by FNAC. In 133 cases, (43%) both cytology and histology were available. In 127 of these 133 cases (95.5%), the diagnosis Warthin tumor was confirmed by histology. In 4 cases (3%), a benign lesion was diagnosed and 2 (1.5%) revealed a malignant lesion. On review, those cytologic diagnoses were not certain. In the literature, 11 missed malignancies (5.4%) in 202 cases were reported.

Conclusion: The diagnostic accuracy of FNAC for the diagnosis of Warthin tumor is high and the percentage of missed malignant tumors is very low. Our results imply that a cytologic diagnosis of Warthin tumor may justify conservative treatment.