Pancreas
Exocrine tumors / carcinomas
Signet ring cell carcinoma
Copyright: 2002-2020, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Signet ring cell carcinoma[TIAB] pancreas
Exocrine tumors / carcinomas
Signet ring cell carcinoma
Author: Deepali Jain, M.D.
Topic Completed: 1 August 2012
Minor changes: 9 March 2020
Copyright: 2002-2020, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Signet ring cell carcinoma[TIAB] pancreas
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Case reports | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) imagesCite this page: Jain D. Signet ring cell carcinoma. PathologyOutlines.com website. http://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/pancreassignet.html. Accessed May 30th, 2020.
Definition / general
- Extremely rare, usually aggressive, poorly differentiated invasive adenocarcinoma with malignant glandular cells having nuclei pressed to one side by intracytoplasmic mucin (IARC: 8490 / 3 Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma [Accessed 15 December 2017])
- Must exclude breast or GI primary
Case reports
- 30 year old man (Ultrastruct Pathol 1998;22:147)
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Poorly cohesive epithelial cells containing intracytoplasmic mucin that displaces nuclei towards periphery
- Infiltrates as single cells; variable extracellular mucin
- Resembles mammary lobular carcinoma and gastric carcinoma with targetoid pattern, signet ring cells, linear infiltration
Microscopic (histologic) images
AFIP
Strands of relatively
small tumor cells
with many signet
ring cells
Typical signet ring cells
