Citología de las secreciones mamarias. Valor en el estudio de lesiones papilares

Abstract

ObjectiveTo establish the role of cytologic study of nipple discharge in the diagnosis of papillary lesions of the breast. Material and methodsRetrospective and descriptive study of 6,127 cytological smears of nipple discharges obtained between 1986 and 2012. Of these, histopathological results were available for comparison in 137. ResultsCytologic diagnosis was as follows: not feasible due to the absence of material in 513 cases of nipple discharge (8.4%), benign in 4,975 (81.2%), inflammatory in 234 (3.8%), papilloma in 321 (5.2%), papillary process in 28 (0.5%), papillary carcinoma in 8 (0.1%), and carcinoma in 21 (0.3%). Other processes were diagnosed in 27 cases (0.4%). The correlation with the histologic result was good in papillomas (45 of 81, 56%). ConclusionAlthough there is a good correlation between the cytologic diagnosis of papilloma and the benign nature of the lesion, the cytology of mammary secretions is specific to the diagnosis of malignancy but has low accuracy in establishing the accurate diagnosis of the lesion.