title: The potential value of preoperative cytobrush papanicolaou smear in clinical stage I endometrial carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our purpose was to assess the value of preoperative cytobrush Papanicolaou (Pap) smear in patients with uterine cancer clinically confined to the uterine corpus (stage I by previous International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics classification).
  
  
  METHODS
  Over a 6-year period, 300 consecutive women with clinical stage I endometrial cancer were evaluated prospectively by preoperative Cytobrush (Unimar Products, Shelton, CT) Pap smears.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 246 patients (82%) had normal preoperative Pap smears. The diagnosis of either adenocarcinoma (24 patients; 8.0%) or atypical glandular cells of undetermined significance (30 patients; 10%) usually was associated with subclinical advanced surgical-stage disease or with the presence of high-risk subtypes, such as clear-cell carcinoma or papillary serous carcinoma.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Abnormal preoperative cytobrush Pap smear in clinical stage I endometrial cancer should alert clinicians to the possibility of unsuspected occult metastatic disease or the presence of high-risk histological subtypes and should be taken into account in surgical treatment planning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Jersey Shore Medical Center, Neptune, and New Jersey Gynecologic Oncology, PA, Little Silver, NJ.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Patsner
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Morgan