Glossary of Terms in Otolaryngology

Zellballen

  • Zellballen, which is German for a ball of cells, describes a pathologic cell growth pattern where there are nest-like clusters of polygonal neuroendocrine cells called chief cells surrounded by a periphery of sustenacular cells and a fibrovascular stroma.1
  • A zellballen pattern is pathognomonic for paragangliomas.

Zellballen in paragangliomas

  1. Wieneke, Jacqueline A., and Alice Smith. “Paraganglioma: carotid body tumor.” Head and neck pathology 3.4 (2009): 303-306. ↩

Last updated October 21, 2022
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