Combining fine needle aspiration with brushing cytology has improved yields in diagnosing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

The aim of this retrospective study is to evaluate the diagnostic yields of combining fine needle aspiration (FNA) with brushing cytology (BC) in clinical work-up of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The study included a total of 97 patients who underwent both FNA and BC along with histologic/clinical follow-up (F/U). Cytologic diagnoses were categorized as negative for neoplasm (NEG), atypical/favor neoplasm (AN), and suspicious or positive for neoplasm (POS). Based on the cytologic diagnoses, the cohort was divided as follows: 23 had concordant FNA and BC diagnoses of POS/AN, all were neoplasms on F/U; 34 had disconcordant (POS/AN vs. NEG) FNA and BC diagnoses, all but 2 were neoplasms on F/U; The remaining 40 were NEG on both FNA and BC, F/U revealed that 10 were neoplasms and 30 were chronic pancreatitis. Overall, FNA rendered more true positive diagnoses than BC. However, BC but not FNA detected neoplasms in 10 patients. Most of the neoplasms identified on F/U were ductal adenocarcinoma (59 of 65). Diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were 69.2, 93.8, 95.7, 60, and 77.3% for FNA alone, 50.8, 100, 100, 50.0, and 67.0% for BC alone, and 84.6, 100, 100, 76.2, and 89.7% for combining FNA with BC. In conclusion, both EUS-guided FNA and BC are valuable modalities in the preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. When used in combination, the two modalities complement each other and achieve better diagnostic yield in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma than either FNA or BC alone.