title: In Papanicolaou smears, benign appearing endometrial cells bear no significance in predicting uterine endometrial adenocarcinomas.
abstract: Reporting of benign appearing endometrial cells (BECs) in the Papanicolaou smears of women aging 40 years or older was mandated in the Bethesda System 2001 aiming at predicting the uterine pathology. The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical significance of the BECs in patients in our Medical Center. A two-arm study was designed in ≥40-years-old women with BECs and without BECs in their Pap smears from January 2002 to December 2004. Of 21,965 patients, 882 had BECs in their Pap smears and the rest did not. Among the patients with BECs, 186 (study group) and among those without BECs, 2,064 (control group) had histopathologic follow-ups. There were 4 patients in the study and 47 in the control groups who had uterine adenocarcinoma. The Chi-square P-value for adenocarcinoma between the two groups was 0.91; indicating insignificant differences between the two groups. We conclude that presence of BECs in the Pap smears of ≥40-years-old women signal no significance as a harbinger of endometrial adenocarcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1732, USA. nmoatamed@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Neda A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Moatamed
authors.forename: Lam-Thuy
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Le
authors.forename: Mary R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: Rekha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Govind
authors.forename: Sophia K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Apple
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004714:Endometrial Hyperplasia / Q000175:diagnosis; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D065006:Papanicolaou Test / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014592:Uterine Hemorrhage / Q000473:pathology; D014599:Uterus / Q000473:pathology; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000379:methods*