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Prediction of upper aerodigestive tract cancer by slide-based cytometry
Andreas O H Gerstner1, Alexander Thiele, Attila Tárnok
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Surgery, University of Bonn, Germany. gerstaoh@web.de
Aim:
To evaluate slide-based cytometry in screening for and following up of carcinoma of the upper aerodigestive tract using swabs for a minimal-invasive approach.
Methods:
Laser scanning cytometry (LSC) was used for multiparametric analysis of cells stained for cytokeratin and DNA to determine the DNA-index (DI) of the tumor cells. Histograms with 0.95 < DI < 1.05 and 1.9 < DI < 2.1 were defined as DNA euploid and any other DI as DNA aneuploid. After subsequent HE-staining, single cells were relocalized in order to document morphology. Conventional cytology was also performed on a subset of the slides. Routine histopathology of parallel biopsies served as gold standard in all cases.
Results:
115 swabs from 109 patients were obtained from the entire upper aerodigestive tract. 16 swabs were classified as insufficient for LSC. In the remaining 99 specimens, 1 benign lesion was misclassified as malignant, while 61 of the 75 malignant lesions were correctly identified. This corresponds to predictive values of 98.4% and 62.2% for the detection of malignant and benign samples by LSC.
Conclusion:
This pilot study demonstrates the validity of LSC screening for the identification of tumor malignancy in the upper aerodigestive tract from swab collected cytological material.
