title: Diagnosing endometrial carcinoma with cervical involvement by cervical cytology.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the relationship of a cervical cytologic diagnosis based on number, size and degeneration of malignant clusters and necrotic background to cervical involvement of endometrial carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cervical smears of 53 women with endometrial carcinoma were evaluated for cervical involvement. The cytologic diagnosis was compared with actual involvement, and accuracy was calculated. Retrospectively, cytologic features, including number, size and degeneration of malignant clusters and necrotic background, were analyzed in involved and noninvolved cases.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cervical involvement was confirmed in 15 patients (28.3%). The number and size of malignant clusters in the involved cases were significantly larger than those in the noninvolved cases (P < .001 and < .01, respectively). The proportion of degenerated malignant cells and necrotic background in involved cases were significantly higher than those in noninvolved cases (P < .05). Cytologic diagnosis had a sensitivity and specificity of 62.5% and 86.8%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cervical smears of involved cases revealed a large number and large size of malignant clusters. These findings support cytologic diagnosis based on number, size and degeneration of malignant cells and necrotic background. Cervical cytology is useful to exclude cervical involvement because of its high specificity and can help detect cervical involvement because of its moderately high sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fukushima Medical University, 1 Hikarigaoka, Fukushima, 960-1295, Japan.
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Morimura
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nishiyama
authors.forename: Toshihiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Yoshimasa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Hidekazu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yanagida
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sato
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002452:Cell Count; D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary; D014626:Vaginal Smears