Cytological features of atypical carcinoid combined with adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix

Abstract

Neuroendocrine tumors of the uterine cervix (UC) are rare, and atypical carcinoid (AC) combined with adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix (ACAUC) is particularly rare. Only the histopathology has been investigated in the English literature. A 49-year-old female with a polypoid lesion of the UC visited Yamanashi Prefectural Central Hospital. Scraping cytology, biopsy, and hysterectomy was performed. EC smears showed solid, rosette, honeycomb,true tubular, and trabecular clusters. Solid clusters were oval, thin-edge, delicate, small-large nuclei, pale, granular, scant, nothing,and well-preserved (though ill-defined border) cytoplasm. Rosette clusters were eccentric, oval nuclei, mixture of coarsely granular chromatin and euchromatin, and cyanophilic luminal content. Solid and rosette clusters impress AC. Honeycomb clusters involved a clearly defined border and translucent mucin. True tubular clusters were oval nuclei of fine chromatin or euchromatin, thick cytoplasm,and orange luminal content. Honeycomb and true tubular clusters suspected adenocarcinoma. Trabecular clusters were fusiform, columnar, cuboidal, and polygonal cell shapes of small,monotonous nuclei, and contained coarsely granular chromatin with occasionally intracytoplasmic translucent mucin and were difficult to differentiate typical carcinoid and adenocarcinoma.Histology was AC combined with adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study was to investigate the cytological characteristics of ACAUC.