CYTOLOGIC ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY STOMACH ADENOCARCINOMA METASTATIC TO THE UTERINE CERVIX

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cytologic and pathologic features of end ocervical lesions in cases of gastric adenocarcinoma metastatic to the uterine cervix.STUDY DESIGN: From 1986 to 1994, four patients with ga stric adenocarcinoma metastatic to the uterine cervix were treated at our department. The cervical cytologic samples were obtained by swabbi ng and were stained by the Papanicolaou method. Presence of tumor diat hesis, number of atypical cells, cell arrangement, cytoplastic vacuole s, cellular and nuclear diameter, chromatin distribution and size of t he nucleolus were investigated. RESULTS: The smear backgrounds were di rty (tumor diathesis) in two cases and clean in two. No significant di fference in the number of atypical cells or in cell or nuclear diamete r between primary and metastatic adenocarcinoma was shown. Cell arrang ement was the different cytologic finding between primary and metastat ic adenocarcinoma. Sheetlike or isolated arrangement was seen frequent ly in metastatic cervical adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSION: Because differen t cytologic features have been found in past and the present series, c ytologic diagnosis of metastatic cervical adenocarcinoma should be mad e carefully.