C. Midulla et al., THE VALUE OF FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF BREAST PROLIFERATIVE LESIONS, Anticancer research, 15(6B), 1995, pp. 2619-2622
In order to further characterize fine needle aspiration cytology of br
east proliferative lesions, we analyzed 723 FNA of patients with palpa
ble breast abnormalities who underwent physical, mammographic and/or e
chographic examination. In 28 biopsies (3.9%), the final cytologic dia
gnosis was a proliferative lesion, a group of uncommon breast prolifer
ative diseases not yet explored, in which cytology is sufficiently cel
lular with plenty of atypical elements but not suspicious of carcinoma
. Histologic material was available in 22 cases and represented the ba
sis of this retrospective evaluation. Among the positive proliferative
lesions (PPL), 10 cases were infiltrating ductal carcinomas and 1 was
a microinvasive carcinoma; whereas for the negative proliferative les
ions (NPL), in 8 cases the histologic findings demonstrated fibrocysti
c changes, in 1 a fibroadenoma and in 1 a cystosarcoma phyllodes. The
cytologic criteria utilized to define breast proliferative lesions wer
e the following: increased cellularity, occasional single atypical cel
ls, decreased cellular cohesion, crowded, enlarged and overlapping nuc
lei with three dimensional groupings with prominent nucleoli and chrom
atic changes. The cytologic characteristics by single atypical cells w
ith nuclear alterations such as coarsely granular chromatin with a thi
ck nuclear membrane and numerous prominent nucleoli. These features ar
e common to many malignancies, therefore surgical biopsy confirmation
is suggested.