Liver metastasis from nasopharyngeal carcinoma diagnosed on fine needle aspiration cytology

Abstract

A 12-year-old boy presented with abdominal distention for 1 year. On examination, he had massive hepatomegaly. Facial swelling in the maxillary region, palpable left cervical lymph nodes, and a nasal twang to his voice were detected. Imaging showed multiple hypodense liver lesions, necrotic mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes, multiple lytic–sclerotic skeletal lesions, and lesions in the nasopharynx and maxilla. Fine needle aspirate (FNA) from the cervical lymph node yielded blood. FNA from the liver showed singly dispersed and cohesive clusters of tumor cells, with interspersed neutrophils and tingible body macrophages. Cells had scant to moderate fragile cytoplasm, enlarged vesicular nuclei, and prominent nucleoli. Immunohistochemistry on cell block revealed positivity for cytokeratin and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)-Latent Membrane Protein-1 (LMP1). A diagnosis of metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma was made, and was confirmed on a subsequent biopsy from the femur.

Keywords

• cell block
• ebv-lmp1
• epstein–barr virus
• head and neck cancer
• immunohistochemistry
• pediatric cancer