Pathological diagnosis and clinical significance of appendiceal epithelial neoplasms

Abstract

Appendiceal epithelial neoplasms including benign and malignant, are clinically rare. There were quite a lot of changings in classification systems for them and different pathological diagnostic terminologies were used, resulted in confusions of understanding and communication for both pathologists and clinicians. Basically, appendiceal epithelial neoplasms include adenoma, serrated lesion and polyps, mucinous neoplasms, carcinoma and neuroendocrine neoplasms. Appendiceal mucinous neoplasms and goblet cell carcinoma are exclusively seen in the appendix. Though some appendiceal neoplasms are similar to those in large bowl, however, the molecular mechanism is different. The classification, pathological diagnosis and clinical significance of appendiceal epithelial neoplasms were summarized based on the fifth edition of WHO classification on digestive system tumors and other related literatures.