title: Fine needle aspiration cytology of lobular breast carcinoma and its variants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify associations between cytological criteria in fine needle aspiration (FNA) specimens and histological subtypes of lobular breast carcinoma (classical and other types).
  
  
  METHODS
  FNA cytology and mastectomy specimens from 72 cases of invasive lobular breast carcinoma were consecutively retrieved from the files of the Amaral de Carvalho Hospital, Jaú-São Paulo, Brazil. All cases were reviewed regarding five cytological criteria: cellularity, cellular cohesion, presence of inflammation, nucleoli and nuclear atypia. The χ2 test or Fisher's exact tests with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The classical type showed lower initial cytological diagnosis of malignancy compared to the other variants (p=0.017; odds ratio (OR) 0.26, 95% CI 0.89-0.80). Moderate/intense cellular cohesion (p=0.011; OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.73) and mild atypia (p=0.000; OR 16.15, 95% CI 3.20-81.48) were significantly associated with the classical type of lobular breast carcinoma, while the absence of inflammation (p=0.082; OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.12-1.15) was marginally associated with the classical type.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In cytology, the characterization of lobular carcinoma as malignant is difficult, especially the classical type. The association between cell cohesion and the classical type of lobular breast carcinoma may be one of the factors that complicate this diagnosis.
authors: Department of Pathology, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Botucatu, Brazil.
authors: Rozany
authors: R
authors: Mucha Dufloth
authors: José Cândido Caldeira
authors: JC
authors: Xavier-Júnior
authors: Francisco Alves
authors: FA
authors: Moraes Neto
authors: Karina
authors: K
authors: Janoti dos Santos
authors: Fernando
authors: F
authors: Schmitt
mesh_terms: D015703:Antigens, CD; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism; D002449:Cell Aggregation; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology; D003581:Cytodiagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; C513384:CDH1 protein, human; D015820:Cadherins