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Updated: Dec 4, 2025
Establishment of Cancer Stem Cell Cultures from Human Conventional Osteosarcoma
Published on: October 14, 2016
Cytological diagnosis of osteosarcoma with emphasis on diagnostic pitfalls
Parikshaa Gupta1, Nalini Gupta1, Vani Bharani1
1Department of Cytology and Gynecologic Pathology, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India.
Introduction:
Fine needle aspiration is a well-established technique for evaluating primary and secondary bony lesions. With use in selected cases, it achieves a diagnostic yield comparable to biopsies.
Methods:
Cases of osteosarcoma (OS) with available histological follow-up were retrieved over a 10-year period. Detailed morphological evaluation was done, with special emphasis on pitfalls in the diagnosis of OS on cytology and the various variants of OS.
Results:
Of the 41 cases with available follow-up histology, 56% were correctly diagnosed as OS on cytology. The most common false-negative cytological diagnosis of OS, in 17% cases, was giant cell tumour. The possible explanations for this included low cellularity, minimal atypia, absence of typical osteoid, misinterpretation of metachromatic osteoid material as fibro-collagenous material and non-availability of radiology at time of aspiration.
Conclusion:
A triple-phase evaluation including clinical evaluation, appropriate radiological correlation and cytology/histopathology, is important to clinch an accurate diagnosis.
