Improvement of Immunocytochemical Diagnosis of Neoplastic Effusions by Short-Term Culture of the Fluid: A Case Report

Abstract

The metastatic nature of effusions from solid tumors may remain undetected in about 20% of instances when they are analyzed by conventional cytological techniques [5]. Such failures are mostly due to the scarcity of tumor cells, which may be masked by mesothelial and lymphoid elements. We have recently shown that immunocytochemical methods employing monoclonal antibodies (MAb) to tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) can greatly improve the accuracy of cytodiagnosis of metastatic effusions [7].