Context: Pancreatic tuberculosis and peripancreatic tuberculous lymphadenitis are rare, mimicking various pathologies of the pancreas. The coexistence of peri-ampullary malignancy with peripancreatic tuberculous lymphadenitis has not been reported.
Case report: We present the case of a young woman who had been operated on with a preoperative diagnosis of peri-ampullary adenocarcinoma in whom a frozen section of regional lymph nodes revealed tuberculosis. The final pathology confirmed the co-existence of tuberculosis with malignancy. The patient made an uneventful recovery.
Conclusion: In countries with high endemicity for tuberculosis, the co-existence of malignancy and tuberculosis should be considered and resection, which is the only chance for cure, should not be abandoned due to observations based solely on frozen sections.