Cytological grading of breast cancer in Giemsa-stained fine needle aspiration smears |
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Authors: | B krbínc A Bábic T Cúfer & M Us-Kráovec |
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Institution: | Department for Medical Oncology, Institute of Oncology, Ljubljana, Slovenia. |
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Abstract: | A potential cytological nuclear grading based on a semi-quantitative evaluation of three basic nuclear features, size of cell nuclei, anisonucleosis and the proportion of nucleoli-containing-nuclei, was tested on 74 Giemsa-stained fine needle aspiration of breast smears for its reliability in establishing the malignant potential of breast cancer. The prognostic impact of DNA-ploidy and S-phase fraction was also assessed. A good correlation between the three basic nuclear features, DNA-ploidy, S-phase fraction, cytological nuclear grade and histological grade, was shown. Using the cytological nuclear grade proposed, correct classification of cases between low histological grade (HG I) and high histological grade (HG II + HG III) was achieved in 79.73%. A statistically significant difference in 5-year survival rate was also observed between low malignancy grade and high malignancy grade breast cancer patients, regardless of the grading method used. DNA-ploidy and S-phase fraction were not statistically significant in establishing the malignant potential of breast cancer. |
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Keywords: | breast cancer cytological nuclear grading FNA breast cytology histological grading size of cell nuclei anisonucleosis nucleoli-containing nuclei DNA-ploidy S-phase fraction tumour malignant potential disease progression |
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