IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF REACTIVE MESOTHELIAL CELLS AND ADENOCARCINOMA CELLS IN SEROUS EFFUSIONS WITH THE USE OF CARCINOEMBRYONIC ANTIGEN AND FIBRONECTIN
P. Athanassiadou et al., IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF REACTIVE MESOTHELIAL CELLS AND ADENOCARCINOMA CELLS IN SEROUS EFFUSIONS WITH THE USE OF CARCINOEMBRYONIC ANTIGEN AND FIBRONECTIN, Acta cytologica, 38(5), 1994, pp. 718-722
Ninety effusions from patients with breast and ovarian cancer were stu
died cytologically and classified as benign, suspicious or malignant,
and the same samples were studied for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) a
nd fibronectin (F) immunostaining. The combination F positive/CEA nega
tive was found to have 100% specificity and 92.3% sensitivity in patie
nts with benign or reactive effusions, and F negative/CEA positive 85.
7% specificity and 80.7% sensitivity for malignancy. Immunostaining pr
ovides valuable supplementary information in cytologically suspicious
patients. int the presence of F negative/CEA negative effusions, it is
probable that insufficient cellular material is present for either a
cytologic or immunostaining diagnosis.