title: Well-differentiated villoglandular adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix: assessment of cytological features by histological subtypes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Well-differentiated villoglandular adenocarcinoma (VGA) of the cervix involves papillae lined by different types of epithelial cells that are histologically subclassified into endocervical, endometrioid, or intestinal subtypes. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the definite cytological features of VGA by histological subtype.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined 8 cervical smears from patients confirmed to have pure VGA and classified them into the 3 histological subtypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cervical smears were highly cellular and had a relatively clean background. The nuclei had minimal anisonucleosis and fine granular chromatin with almost inconspicuous nucleoli. The characteristic findings of the endocervical type were a palisading arrangement consisting of columnar or spindle-shaped cells with apical or elongated nuclei. Small but clear nucleoli were identified only in the endocervical type. In the endometrioid type, tumor cells consisted of cohesive sheets with smooth edges and very round nuclei. Cytoplasmic vacuolation was never observed in the endometrioid type. The tumor cells in the intestinal type were prominent with abundant cytoplasmic mucin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We demonstrated that the cytological features of this tumor can vary depending on the histological subtype and one should be aware of these features in order to improve diagnostic accuracy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kyushu University Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan. thagi@qkn-hosp.jp
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hagiwara
authors.forename: Tsunehisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kaku
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wake
authors.forename: Toshiaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Saito
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000473:pathology*