International Journal of Surgical Pathology 8(4):271-278, 2000 Differential Diagnosis Between Intraductal Papillary-Mucinous Tumors and Mucinous Cystic Tumors of the Pancreas

Mucinous cystic tumors (MCTs) and intraductal papillary-mucinous tumors (IPMTs) are often confused with each other. However, clinicopathological studies have shown that these are two distinct entities. In this review, clinicopathological differ-ences and important features for differential diagnosis are presented. MCTs are cyst-forming tumors in the body or tail of the pancreas seen almost exclusively in females. IPMTs show distinct duct ectasia in the pancreatic head with male predom-inance. Histologically both tumors consist of mucin secreting tall columnar epithe-lium. MCTs are often accompanied by characteristic "ovarian-type stroma. " Recent immunohistochemical and gene analysis have not demonstrated significant differ-ences between two tumor types. These tumors should be clearly separated from ordinary ductal adenocarcinomas of the pancreas as they follow indolent course