Endoscopic diagnosis of gastroesophageal junction and Barrett's esophagus is essential for surveillance and early detection of esophageal adenocarcinoma and esophagogastric junction cancer. Despite its small size, the gastroesophageal junction has many inherent problems, including marked differences in diagnostic methods for Barrett's esophagus in international guidelines. To define Barrett's esophagus, gastroesophageal junction location should be clarified. Although gastric folds and palisade vessels are landmarks for identifying this junction, they are sometimes difficult to observe due to air entry or reflux esophagitis. The possibility of diagnosing a malignancy associated with Barrett's esophagus <1 cm, identified using palisade vessels, should be re-examined. Nontargeted biopsies of Barrett's esophagus are commonly used to detect intestinal metaplasia, dysplasia, and cancer as described in the Seattle protocol. Barrett's esophagus with intestinal metaplasia has a high risk of becoming cancerous. Furthermore, the frequency of cancer in patients with Barrett's esophagus without intestinal metaplasia is high, and the guidelines differ on whether to include the presence of intestinal metaplasia in the diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus. Use of advanced imaging technologies, including narrow-band imaging with magnifying endoscopy and linked color imaging, is reportedly valid for diagnosing Barrett's esophagus. Furthermore, artificial intelligence has facilitated the diagnosis of Barrett's esophagus through its deep learning and image recognition capabilities. However, it is necessary to first use the endoscopic definition of the gastroesophageal junction, which is common in all countries, and then elucidate the characteristics of Barrett's esophagus in each region, for example, length differences in the risk of carcinogenesis with and without intestinal metaplasia.
BACKGROUND: The diverse range of diseases that affect the salivary glands may lead to problems and pitfalls in cyto-diagnosis. While false negative diagnosis of cystic salivary gland tumors is well known, false positive cytodiagnosis in nonneoplastic salivary cysts is less well documented.
CASE: An 85-year-old female presented with a painless left parotid gland swelling of three months' duration. Fine needle aspiration cytology yielded fluid, smears of which showed keratinizing squamous cells with nuclear atypia leading to a cytologic diagnosis of cystic squamous cell carcinoma. A total radical parotidectomy followed. Histopathologic study showed cystic dilatation of many of the salivary ducts, which were lined with metaplastic squamous epithelium that showed atypia. There was no evidence of squamous cell carcinoma.
CONCLUSION: Squamous metaplasia is known to occur in benign salivary gland lesions, such as pleomorphic adenoma and Warthin's tumors, as well as in salivary duct cysts and necrotizing sialometaplasia. However, atypical squamous metaplasia of salivary duct cysts mimicking squamous cell carcinoma on cytology is unusual.