Fine needle aspiration cytology of minor salivary gland tumors: A retrospective 5-year study of 42 cases in a tertiary care hospital

Background: Minor salivary gland tumors (MSGTs) are less common than major salivary glands and involve only 15-20% of all salivary gland tumors. Most of the cases originate at intra- and peri-oral region. Minor salivary gland lesion cytology has been studied rarely in India. Aims: This present study was performed to evaluate the role of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) in diagnosis of MSGTs and to explore the cases of cytohistological discrepancies in the study. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted over a 5-year period on 42 cases of MSGTs. In all the cases, cytology was correlated with histology and cytohistological discrepancies were searched. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic efficacy were calculated using histopathology as gold standard. Results: We diagnosed 27 malignant (64.28%) and 15 benign (35.71%) MSGTs in cytological evaluation. We found two false negative and one false positive case in cytology. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic accuracy of the study were 92.59%, 93.33%, and 92.85%, respectively. Conclusion: FNAC is a minimally invasive and cost-effective procedure with high accuracy (92.85%) in the assessment of MSGTs and helps in the management of benign and malignant tumors.