Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology of Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Peripheral Lung: A Case Report.

The mucoepidermoid carcinoma is a rare tumor in the lung for less than 1% of all pulmonary neoplasm. It is mostly presented as a solitary pulmonary nodule at a large bronchial tree on bronchoscope. But more peripheral located tumor that not accessible to the bronchoscope are rarely reported on literature. The cytologic findings of these tumors are discribed as a mixture of squamous cells, mucous cells, and intermediate cells with overlapped cellular clusters. We experienced a case of peripheral mucoepidermoid carcinoma of lung diagnosed by fine needle aspiration cytology. The smear showed many cellular clusters on mucoid background. They consisted of many intermediate cells with occasional mucus-secreting cells, but malignant squamous cells were not present.