Ar. Frost et al., CAN NONPROLIFERATIVE BREAST DISEASE AND PROLIFERATIVE BREAST DISEASE WITHOUT ATYPIA BE DISTINGUISHED BY FINE-NEEDLE ASPIRATION CYTOLOGY, Cancer cytopathology, 81(1), 1997, pp. 22-28
BACKGROUND, Cytologic criteria reported to be helpful in the distincti
on of proliferative breast disease without atypia (PBD) from nonprolif
erative breast disease (NPBD) have not been rigorously tested. METHODS
, Fifty-one air-dried, Diff-Quik(R)-stained fine-needle aspirates (FNA
) of palpable breast lesions with biopsy-proven diagnoses of NPBD (34
cases) or PBD (17 cases) were reviewed. The smears were evaluated for
the cellularity, size, and architectural arrangement of the epithelial
groups; the presence of single epithelial cells and myoepithelial cel
ls; and nuclear characteristics. RESULTS, The only cytologic feature f
ound to be significantly different between PBD and NPBD was a swirling
pattern of epithelial cells. A swirling pattern was noted in 13 of 17
PBD cases (76%) and 12 of 34 NPBD cases (35%) (P = 0.008). CONCLUSION
S, Because there is significant overlap in cytologic features between
the tow entities is difficult in cytologic sampling. (C) 1997 American
Cancer Society.