English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is increasing in developing countries and the management options are wide; therefore, providing the surgeon with accurate prognostic information on which mode of therapy will be chosen becomes important. Fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is a routinely used initial investigation of choice for rapid diagnosis of breast cancer. Apart from diagnosis of cancer, it also has the ability to predict the grade on smears which will add its diagnostic value without any additional morbidity or expense for the patients. Among various cytological grading systems, Robinson grading is most commonly used for breast carcinoma in fine needle aspirates. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the correlation between Robinson’s cytological grading and Bloom Richardson’s histological grading. METHODS This is a 3 - year retrospective analytical study. 40 cases of infiltrating duct carcinoma (IDC) of breast diagnosed on cytology were included in the study. Cytological grading was done using Robinson’s grading and corresponding histopathology slides were taken, and histological grading using Bloom Richardson’s system was done. Finally, correlation between cytological and histological grading was done using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) software. RESULTS Age of the patients varied between 32 and 70 yrs. Cytologically, 32.5 % cases were grade I, 40 % were grade II and 27.5 % cases were grade III respectively. Histologically 22.5 %, 47.5 % and 30 % cases were grade I, grade II, and grade III, respectively. Concordance rate between grade I tumours in cytology and histology was 53.84 %, for grade II tumours it was 75 %, and for grade III tumours it was 63.63 %. The absolute concordance rate was 65 %. CONCLUSIONS Robinson’s cytological grading (RCG) of breast carcinoma correlates well with Bloom - Richardson’s histological grading system and could be a helpful parameter in selecting a neoadjuvant treatment for the breast cancer patients on fine needle aspiration cytology alone. KEYWORDS Breast Carcinoma, Robinson’s Cytological Grading, Bloom Richardson’s Histological Grading