Background: Sebaceous adenoma of the salivary gland is an extremely rare, benign neoplasm that predominantly involves the major salivary glands. The major problem in dealing with sebaceous adenoma is the recognition of this entity to avoid confusion with other more aggressive neoplasms, such as mucoepidenmoid carcinoma. In particular, recognition of this entity in cytologic specimens is important to avoid radical surgery.
Case: A 29-year-old woman presented with an enlarging parotid mass. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy showed cellular smears composed of sheets and aggregates of cuboidal to low columnar cells with slightly irregular nuclear contours, prominent nucleoli and a moderate amount of cytoplasm that appeared squamoid and finely vacuolated. The FNA was misinterpreted as possible low grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma.
Conclusion: We report a case ofa rare and unusual tumor of the salivary glands. The major problem in dealing with sebaceous adenoma is the recognition ofthis entity in cytologic specimens to avoid confusion with other more aggressive neoplasms such as low grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma and potentially to avoid radical surgery. In this paper, the clinical presentation, pathological findings on the fine needle aspirate and surgical resection specimen, and review of the literature will be discussed.