Chhabra S, Singh PK, Agarwal A, Bhagoliwal A, Singh SN

Cytological grading is one of the several key prognostic factors that should be addressed in the pathologic analysis of breast carcinoma. Sixty consecutive cases of breast carcinoma were graded cytologically using Robinson's cytological grading system. Subsequently histologic grading was performed on the tissue of all sixty cases by Nottingham modification of Scarff-Bloom-Richardson method. There was agreement between cytologic and histologic grade in 65% of the tumors. The histologic grade correlated positively with the cytologic grade (r=0.537, p<0.001). Multiple regression analysis was used to assess the significance of each cytologic feature. The study also showed that extent of cell dissociation and nucleoli were the most influential features. Thus, assigning a cytologic grade in breast carcinoma aspirates is simple and feasible and correlates precisely with histologic grade.

Key words : Breast carcinoma, FNAC, cytological grading