Inflammatory Pseudotumor Resembling a Malignant Pancreatic Disease Process

Inflammatory pseudotumors are complex entities given that they carry varying characteristics with a multitude of behaviors that can resemble a malignancy clinically, radiographically, and histologically.

Our case report presents a 65-year-old-female with a history of fever, abdominal pain, and anemia with imaging suggestive of a malignant disease process involving an ill-defined soft tissue mass between the left adrenal gland and pancreatic tail.

Following diagnostic laparoscopy with abdominal washings and subsequent open resection of the mass, final pathology revealed multiple specimens demonstrating dense fibrosis with admixed spindled cells and inflammatory cells, an overarching morphology, and an immunohistochemical staining profile consistent with pancreatic inflammatory pseudotumor.

Inflammatory pseudotumor is a challenging diagnosis and should be included in the differential diagnosis for a patient who presents with nonspecific symptoms and an ill-defined mass on imaging.