The additive diagnostic value of cytology in fine needle biopsy of pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A tertiary center experience

Objective: Endoscopic ultrasound guide fine needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) is the main diagnostic tool for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. In most instances, only histology is obtained via FNB, without sending cytological slides. The aim of our study was to assess the additive diagnostic yield of cytology performed through FNB. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of all patients with histological diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma who were diagnosed by EUS-FNB. Results: Overall, 80 patients were included in the study period. The overall concordance between cytology and histology all FNB needles was 78.2%. Notably, cytological assessment improved the diagnostic yield for malignancy by 12.8%. The overall kappa coefficient correlation between histology and cytology was.501, 95% CI 0.361–0.641. However, the kappa correlation for suspicious of malignancy and malignant was excellent of.872, 95% CI 0.733–1, suggesting that cytology is crucial when histology is inconclusive. Further analysis showed that the Acquire and Sharkcore needles outperformed the Procore needle in term of concordance between cytology and histology (kappa correlation of.527, 95% CI 0.331–0.724,.515, 95% CI 0.265–0.764, and.297, 95% CI −0.051–0.646), respectively. Conclusion: Performing cytology specimen when using FNB improves the diagnostic yield in pancreatic adenocarcinoma.