title: Cytoplasmic vacuolation, intracytoplasmic lumina, and DPAS staining in ductal carcinoma of the breast.
abstract: A retrospective study was carried out on 30 cases of histologically proven invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast with a prior fine-needle aspiration (FNA) cytology. On evaluating the May-Grünwald-Giemsa (MGG) FNA smears, cytoplasmic vacuolation was observed in 70% cases. Positivity with periodic acid Schiff-positive, diastase-resistant (DPAS) staining was observed in 90% of cases. The chi(2) value on a McNemar test was 4.16. Thus, DPAS staining was significantly superior to MGG staining for picking up cytoplasmic vacuoles (P < 0.05). In 56.67% cases, DPAS staining showed an improvement in score as compared to MGG smears. This was highly significant (P < 0.001) on Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test. Applying the strict criteria of thick-walled cytoplasmic vacuoles with a central darkly stained dot, none of our cases revealed true intracytoplasmic lumina. Larger studies are required to establish a role for DPAS staining in separating borderline, in situ, and invasive breast lesions, and to see if such positvity can be incorporated into the grading systems for breast carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cytology and Gynaecological Pathology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. medinst@pgi.chd.nic.in
authors.forename: Raje
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nijhawan
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rajwanshi
authors.forename: Upasana
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gautam
authors.forename: Subhash K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000681:Amylases / Q000378:metabolism; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D018270:Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010503:Periodic Acid-Schiff Reaction; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014617:Vacuoles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D000681:Amylases