Myoepithelial cell-rich neoplasms: Cytologic features of benign and malignant lesions

✍ Scribed by Darvishian, Farbod ;Lin, Oscar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 433 KB
• Volume: 102
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0008-543X
• DOI: 10.1002/cncr.20642

✦ Synopsis

BACKGROUND.

Lesions that contain abundant myoepithelial cells may present as a diagnostic challenge in fine-needle aspiration (FNA) specimens. Potential diagnostic problems may arise due to morphologic heterogeneity of myoepithelial cell-rich lesions and difficulty in predicting malignancy in FNA specimens. An accurate diagnosis is important, because malignant myoepithelial cell-rich lesions require a wider local excision and lymph node dissection. The authors characterized the cytologic features of myoepithelial cell-rich lesions in an attempt to define the criteria that facilitate distinction between benign and malignant tumors.

METHODS.

FNA biopsies of myoepithelial cell-rich lesions with corresponding histologic specimens were selected. The cytology specimens were evaluated for the following criteria: cellularity, cell morphology, pleomorphism, chromatin pattern, presence of nucleoli, background material, necrotic debris, and presence of mitotic figures. A review of the histologic sections was performed for diagnostic confirmation.