METASTATIC MALIGNANCIES PRESENTING AS NODAL ENLARGEMENT

Metastatic malignancy is a more common etiology of peripheral lymphadenopathy than lymphoma, especially in patients over 40 years of age. FNAC has proved to be a valuable tool in diagnosing .These are diagnosed based on the presence of abnormal non lymphoid cells among normal reactive lymphoid cells .Some of the malignancies have been reported in our department by FNAC of nodes(inguinal ,cervical).Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common primary tumour metastasing to the lymph nodes. Cervical lymph nodes are the most commonly involved and the commonest primary site is head and neck .Here We report one case of elderly man with melanoma -anal canal; another man with carcinoma penis presenting with inguinal nodal metastasis and a case of elderly man with hypopharyngeal growth presenting with cervical node .The importance of presenting this article is mainly to highlight the fact that diagnosing malignancy in lymph node by FNAC helps in evaluating an unknown primary.