Applicability of Cytological Grading of Carcinoma Breast

Abstract

Background: In India breast cancer incidence is on rise and large number of cases occur before 50 years of age. Early diagnosis and proper treatment are known to increase the survival of the patients. As fine needle aspiration cytology is widely used as a preliminary mode for the diagnosis of breast malignancies, adding a reliable grading system in reporting shall aid in planning the management options.
 Methods: It’s a prospective study done on 100 cases of breast malignancies from June 2018 to May 2020 in department of Pathology JLNMC, Ajmer. Cytology smears were stained with H&E and Geimsa and graded according to Robinson’s cytological grading system while their corresponding histopathological sections were stained with H&E and graded as per Elston and Ellis modification of Scarff Bloom & Richardson grading system and the results were compared.
 Result: Out of 100 cases of breast cancer evaluated in cytology 29% were grade I, 56% were grade II and 15% were grade III. On histopathological evaluation 25% were grade I, 54% were grade II while 21% were grade III. A highly significant association between the two grading systems was observed with coefficient of correlation 0.831, p value of <0.001 and concordance rate 80%.
 Conclusion: There is high degree of concordance between the Robinson’s and Elston and Ellis modification of Scarff Bloom & Richardson grading system. Robinson’s method is an easy and quick and reliable method to grade carcinomas of breast, hence it should be included in cytology reporting of breast carcinomas.