Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor of the pancreatic neck misdiagnosed as neuroendocrine tumor: A case report

BACKGROUND: Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a relatively rare tumor. The global incidence of IMT is less than 1%. There is no specific clinical manifestation. It usually occurs in the lungs, but the pancreas is not the predilection site. CASE SUMMARY: We present a case of a male patient, 51 years old, who was diagnosed with a pancreatic neck small mass on ultrasound one year ago during a physical examination. As he had no clinical symptoms and the mass was relatively small, he did not undergo treatment. However, the mass was found to be larger on review, and he was referred to our hospital. Since the primal clinical diagnosis was pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, the patient underwent surgical treatment. However, the case was confirmed as pancreatic IMT by postoperative pathology. CONCLUSION: Pancreatic IMT is relatively rare and easily misdiagnosed. We can better under-stand and correctly diagnose this disease by this case report.