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.