Quantitative image cell analysis of cytologic smears for DNA ploidy in renal parenchymal neoplasms

Quantitative image cell analysis for DNA ploidy was performed on cytologic smears from a series of 19 histologically proven cases of renal parenchymal tumors. These cases included chromophobe-cell carcinoma (n = 5), oncocytoma (n = 5), papillary carcinoma (n = 2), and conventional renal-cell carcinoma (n = 7). All chromophobe renal-cell carcinomas were composed predominantly of hypodiploid cells, while the five oncocytomas were virtually entirely composed of diploid cells. The papillary and conventional renal-cell carcinomas, on the other hand, showed a variety of ploidy profiles. Scatterplots generated by plotting nuclear DNA mass against nuclear area produced patterns that correlated with the morphologic type of the neoplasms. These findings indicate that quantitative image cell analysis for DNA ploidy may provide valuable clues that could be helpful in arriving at a precise diagnosis of renal parenchymal tumors. Diagn. Cytopathol. 1999;21:223-229.