Liquid-Based Cytology and Cell Block in Breast Lesions

Abstract

Liquid-based cytology (LBC) is a method of retrieving and processing cytologic material for assessment. Developed primarily for cervical cytology screening in an effort to reduce inadequacy rates, the use of LBC has extended to FNAC cytology as well. In LBC, cytologic material is placed in a fixative solution and, depending on the system, is then centrifuged or filtered to produce monolayers of cells on glass slides which can enhance and facilitate interpretation. These monolayered preparations can also be subjected to adjunctive studies like immunohistochemistry.

There are many ways of achieving monolayered cell preparations, which may be through automated platforms like ThinPrep and SurePath, or via alternative manual techniques that are less costly and that can produce similar monolayered preparations. One study found that monolayered preparations of breast aspirates gave definitive diagnoses significantly more often than aspirates subjected to conventional smear preparations (72.8 % vs. 58.5 %) and that the benefit was most frequently observed in malignant breast lesions.