Robinson’s cytological grading on fine needle aspirates (FNAC) of breast cancers and its correlation with histopathological grading

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in females. Fine needle aspiration cytology plays an important role in the management of these patients. Aims and objectives: 1) To study Robinson's cytological grading on preoperative FNAC smears in cases of breast carcinoma. 2) To correlate Robinson's cytological grading with modified Scarff Bloom Richardson histopathological grading. Methods: A retrospective study was done on 50 patients of breast carcinoma over the period of 2 years from 1 st January 2018 to 31 st December 2019 at a tertiary care center. Results: Groups II and group III cases of breast carcinomas were correlated very well on cytological and histopathological grading. The sensitivity of cytological grading in the present study were 66.66%, 75% and 85.71 respectively. Specificity were 85%, 76.92% and 90.90% respectively i.e. maximum in grade III. The k value for present study showed 0.62 i.e substantial agreement. Conclusion: Cytological grading of breast carcinomas is a useful prognostic marker in the management of breast carcinoma. It is helpful in selecting the patients for modified radical mastectomy with axillary dissection and neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Comparative Evaluation of Cytological and Histopathological Grading in Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Breast: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…On histopathology, Grades I, II, and III tumors were 34%, 44% and 22% respectively. In the study of Deshmukh et al [15] (2020), Grades I, II, and III were 30%, 46%, and 24%, respectively, almost similar to our study.…”

“…Absolute concordance in our study was 76% which is very close to the absolute concordance in the studies of Meena et al [13] (2006), Saha et al [8] (2013), Handa et al [16] (2014), Pal and Gupta [17] (2016), Jayasree at al. [18] (2020), and Deshmukh et al [15] (2020), which was 79%, 77.1%, 78%, 78%, 78.2%, and 75.8%, respectively, very close to present study.…”

“…Although concordance for different grades varied in different studies in the literature, concordance of individual grades in studies of Pandya and Shah [20] (2012), Pal and Gupta [17] (2016), and Deshmukh et al [15] (2020) is almost similar with the present study. In contrast to our study, individual grade concordance in study of Bhargava et al [19] (2005) and Sood et al [21] (2013) is different which is probably due to difference in sample size and subjective variabilities (Table 5).…”

“…Robinson et al [6] (1994), Khan et al[12] (2003), Meena et al[13] (2006), Phukan et al[14] (2015), and Deshmukh et al[15] (2020), maximum number of cases were reported as Grade II on cytology and were comprising 46.2%, 53.0%, 51.0%, 48%, and 48%, respectively, with average of 49.2%, which is almost equal to present study, where prevalence of this grade is 50.0%.…”