Morphologic subtypes of pancreatic lesions.

Because each pancreatic neoplasm has different malignant potential, it is clinically valuable to determine characteristic imaging findings that can enable differentiation. We classified pancreatic tumors into solid tumors (A malignant or potentially malignant), mixed cystic and solid lesions (B malignant or potentially malignant), unilocular cysts (C benign or potentially malignant), multilocular cystic lesions (D benign or potentially malignant), and microcystic lesions (E benign). Multilocular cystic lesions are divided into three categories including lobulated (benign), pleomorphic (from benign to malignant), and smooth in shape with septation (potentially malignant). These figures are made by referring to previously suggested classification schema (5).