Sclerosing mucoepidermoid carcinoma with eosinophilia: Cytologic characterization of a rare distinct entity in the thyroid

Sclerosing mucoepidermoid carcinoma with eosinophilia (SMECE) is an extremely rare thyroid carcinoma with limited cytologic descriptions in the literature. Here, we present a 52‐year‐old woman with a 3.9 cm thyroid nodule. Fine‐needle aspiration smears consisted of a highly cellular specimen with tumor cells in isolated patterns and solid squamoid nests. Tumor cells had round to oval nuclei, prominent nucleoli, smooth nuclear contours, and moderate amounts of dense cytoplasm. In addition to the polymorphous population of lymphocytes, the background contained a striking abundance of eosinophils. The subsequent right thyroidectomy showed histologic features diagnostic for SMECE.