FALLOPIAN-TUBE CYTOLOGY - A HISTOCORRELATIVE STUDY OF 150 WASHINGS

The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between fallopian tube lavage cytology and recognized microscopic prognostic features in cancel of the uterine corpus. Tubal (TW) and peritoneal washing cytol ogy (PW), endometrial tumor glade, and tumor involvement of the cervix , myometrium, myometrial vessels, and peritoneum were assessed in 150 patients. Endometrioid adenocarcinoma grade I was considered a low-gra de tumor; while endometrioid carcinoma grades 2/3, serous/clear cell c arcinoma, carcinosarcoma, and high-grade stromal sarcoma were consider ed high grade. The overall concordance rate for paired TWs and PWs was 72% (108/150). Forward stepwise logistic regression analysis of the 1 50 tumors revealed that only PWs and cervical involvement were indepen dently predictive of TWs. No relationship was evident between TWs and depth of myometrial invasion, myometrial vascular involvement, or peri toneal metastases. It is concluded that retrograde transtubal spread b y malignant endometrial cells occurs independently of myometrial histo prognos tic features. TWs provide supporting evidence for diagnostical ly difficult PWs, and malignant TWs may be detected in the presence of minimally invasive serous/clear cell carcinoma and carcinosarcoma of the endometrium. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.