Touch imprint cytologic preparations and the diagnosis of head and neck mass lesions
12/14/2004 M. R. Hussein, U. M. Rashad and K. A. Hassanein3 Annals of Oncology 2005 16(1):171-172; doi:10.1093/annonc/mdi026 The diagnosis of head and neck mass lesions entails examination of initial frozen sections, followed by the evaluation of permanent histological sections. This process is worrying for the surgeon who is unsure about the tentative diagnosis of the frozen sections. Moreover, the pathologist should make a hurried diagnosis on suboptimally prepared specimens. To date, controversial reports are available about the use of touch imprint cytology (TIC) in the diagnosis of these lesions. To assess the utility of an intraoperative TIC in the diagnosis of these lesions, 30 head and neck masses (nasal, pharyngeal, laryngeal and oral lesions) were examined by TIC, permanent histological sections and immunostaining methods. Immediately after obtaining the biopsy specimens, and prior to placing them in fixative, each specimen was imprinted on several glass slides (TIC), fixed immediately and stained with hematoxylin & eosin. The cytological results were reported as: (i) malignant (the cellular findings are diagnostic of malignancy); (ii) suspicious for malignancy (suggestion of cancer but uncertain due to limited number of cells or to degree of atypia); (iii) negative for malignancy (no evidence of malignancy); or (iv) unsatisfactory specimen (scant cellularity, air drying or distortion artifact, obscuring blood or inflammation). The cytological interpretation was carried out intraoperatively. Histological examination of the permanent sections was carried several days later. The cytological evaluation of the TIC revealed 12, 16 and two cases as benign, malignant and suspicious for malignancy, respectively. [...]