Cytopathological diagnosis in a cancer registry: a useful diagnostic tool?
BACKGROUND
To assess the role of cytology in tumor diagnosis and to explore the potential of this technique to improve tumor registry quality, the authors investigated the role of cytology as a diagnostic tool in registry databases.


METHODS
Through the Italian Network of Cancer Registry (AIRTum) archive, the authors retrieved tumors diagnosed during the years 1983-2002 from several registries, Varese, Torino, Ragusa, Ferrara, Genova, and the Tuscan Cancer Registry. The authors then analyzed the amount of morphological confirmation by topographic code, distinguishing cytological from histological diagnosis. The authors analyzed, only for the Tuscan Cancer Registry, the amount of morphological confirmation by both histological and cytological diagnosis and demonstrated the variation of cytological confirmation with stage of tumor.


RESULTS
The better morphological modality for diagnosis was rarely cytology, particularly among lung and pleural tumors; when considered together with histological analysis, cytology examination was often reported in cervical uterine and breast tumors. The usefulness of cytology increases with tumor stage, particularly in sites where biopsy is performed with difficulty.


CONCLUSIONS
Cytology may be useful to improve tumoral characterization in advanced stages or in sites inaccessible for histology; moreover, cytology is useful as an initial detector of pathology, prior to histology. A prospect of improvement in diagnostic cytopathology and the use of ancillary techniques, such as molecular biology, could help clinicians and could increase the accuracy of cancer registration.
Caldarella
Adele
A
Clinical Epidemiology, Center for Study and Prevention of Cancer, Florence, Italy. a.caldarella@cspo.it
Crocetti
Emanuele
E
Taddei
Gian Luigi
GL
Paci
Eugenio
E
D003581:Cytodiagnosis; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*