Diagnostic Cytopathology | 2019
Fine‐needle aspiration cytology of chondroid syringoma
Abstract
Dear Editor The entity chondroid syringoma was introduced in 1961 by Hirsch and Helwig as an alternative to earlier used terminology, mixed tumor of skin. Earlier this tumor was thought to be a mixture of epithelial and mesenchymal components and lately realized that it is composed of epithelial component, so the name was changed from mixed tumor to chondroid syringoma. Chondroid syringomas are infrequent benign skin adnexal tumors constituting about less than 1% of all skin tumors. Head and neck region is the most common site inflicted by this cutaneous neoplasm. Other sites include hand, foot, axillary region, abdomen, penis, vulva, and scrotum. Cytological features of chondroid syringoma have been published seldom in the literature. Morphologically, it is similar to pleomorphic adenoma. Here, we are reporting the cytology of rare case of chondroid syringoma of nose in a 61-year-old male. A 61-year-old male presented with long standing firm, nodular, non-tender 4 × 3 cm swelling over dorsum of nose for 8 years. Swelling was attached to skin. Anterior rhinoscopy was normal. Rest of the systemic examination and investigations were within normal limits. There was no evidence of fever, cough or any lymphadenopathy. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) was performed from the swelling. Smears were prepared and stained with Giemsa and hematoxylin and eosin (H and E). Aspirate smears were cellular and revealed a biphasic tumor with predominately clusters of epithelial cells and few scattered myoepithelial cells in characteristic metachromatic chondromyxoid background (Figure 1A,B). The epithelial cells were monomorphic with round to oval nucleus, fine chromatin, inconspicuous nucleoli, and scant cytoplasm (Figure 1C). There was no evidence of cellular atypia or necrosis. With this classical morphology, the diagnosis of chondroid syringoma was rendered on fine-needle aspiration. Cell block section prepared from the aspiration cytology material also showed similar morphology (Figure 1D). The differential diagnosis on cytology may be pleomorphic adenoma arising from the minor salivary gland, however, attachment to skin favors the diagnosis of chondroid syringoma. FNAC is a cheap and rapid procedure, which aids beautifully in the diagnosis. Chondroid syringoma is a benign slow growing and indolent cutaneous neoplasm. It commonly affects middle-aged men more than