NUCLEAR GRADING AND FLOW CYTOMETRIC DNA PATTERN IN FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATES OF PRIMARY BREAST-CANCER

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy is increasingly used in the diagno sis and biological characterization of breast carcinomas in patients w ho receive preoperative chemotherapy. In this context, nuclear cytolog ic grade supplemented by DNA content could play an important role in t he morphologic assessment of breast cancer In this study, DNA ploidy p attern, analyzed by flow cytometry on FNAs from 92 primary breast carc inomas, was related to cytologic nuclear grade. Twenty-seven samples w ere cytologic grade 1, 33 were grade 2, and 32 were grade 3. Ploidy co rrelated with cytologic nuclear grade (P = 0.0001). Thirty percent of grade 1, 55% of grade 2, and 84% of grade 3 tumors were DNA aneuploid. For 30 of the 92 FNAs, it was possible to compare nuclear cytologic g rade with the corresponding histologic grade using the Scarff, Bloom, and Richardson system. A high concordance (80%) between nuclear grade on FNAs and histologic grade was found. DNA flow cytometry in combinat ion with nuclear cytologic grade might represent additional informatio n for the characterization of breast cancer diagnosed by FNA. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.