CYTOLOGICAL POINTERS TO THE DIAGNOSIS OF A RARE PAROTID GLAND TUMOR - EPITHELIAL-MYOEPITHELIAL CARCINOMA

Epithelial-Myoepithelial carcinoma (EMC) of the salivary gland is a rare tumor representing 1% of all salivary gland neoplasm. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the best tool for preoperative diagnosis of salivary gland neoplasms. However there are only few documented case reports of preoperatively diagnosed cases of EMC in English literature. We present a third case of cytologically diagnosed EMC and highlight the fact that three dimensional clusters, acellular basement membrane material, prominent central nucleoli and attempted tubule formation are important pointers to the cytological diagnosis of EMC at cytology.