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Top 10 Nested Pattern Head and Neck Lesions to Notice

  • Special Issue: Top Ten Head and Neck Differentials
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Abstract

Background

Nested is defined as “cellular clusters arranged in small groupings with intervening vascular or stromal networks, lacking lumens or glandular formation.” Using this definition, multiple neoplastic and non-neoplastic lesions of the head and neck come into the differential. We have broadly organized the differential diagnosis of “nested” tumors into entities with neuroendocrine differentiation, squamous differentiation, thyroid follicular cell differentiation, and other lesions.

Methods

Review.

Results

Many different entities have a nested appearance and the morphologic, immunohistochemical, clinical, and radiographic features contribute to the differential diagnosis. The different tumors covered in this review include neuroendocrine neoplasms, paraganglioma, middle ear neuroendocrine tumor (formerly known as middle ear adenoma), medullary thyroid carcinoma, poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma, olfactory neuroblastoma, ectopic pituitary neuroendocrine tumor, hyalinizing trabecular tumor, solid subtype of papillary thyroid carcinoma, solid cell nests/C-cell hyperplasia, necrotizing sialometaplasia, and meningioma.

Conclusion

In this review, we discuss the morphologic and immunohistochemical features of the covered entities as a guide to differential diagnosis when nested-patterned head and neck lesions are encountered.

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Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, E422 Doan Hall, 410 W 10th Ave, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Abberly Lott Limbach

  2. Department of Pathology, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Ave L25, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA

    Deborah J. Chute

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Lott Limbach, A., Chute, D.J. Top 10 Nested Pattern Head and Neck Lesions to Notice. Head and Neck Pathol 17, 119–131 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12105-023-01534-0

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