Three cases of pancreatic serous cystadenoma and endocrine tumour

Aims: To report three cases of serous cystadenoma and endocrine tumour in the same pancreas, to review the literature and to evaluate the clinicopathological features of the tumours. Cases: Three women ( 71, 57 and 31 years old) were admitted to hospital, two for diseases unrelated to the pancreas and the third for increasing obstructive jaundice in von Hippel-Lindau disease. Preoperative examination showed two distinct lesions in the first patient and only cystic lesions in the other two. Results: Histological examination of the pancreas showed one serous oligocystic adenoma associated with a benign, well-differentiated endocrine tumour, one serous oligocystic adenoma associated with an endocrine microadenoma, and a von Hippel-Lindau-related cystic neoplasm with a well-differentiated endocrine carcinoma. Conclusions: Serous cystadenoma associated with endocrine tumour shows some clinicopathological differences with respect to the two tumours considered separately, and with respect to von Hippel-Lindaurelated cases, although there is no convincing evidence at present to justify considering this association as a separate entity.