Glassy-cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix. Cytopathologic and histopathologic study of five cases

The cytopathologic and histopathologic findings are presented for five cases of glassy-cell carcinoma. The cytology was characterized by tumor cells arranged predominantly in syncytial-like aggregates. The cells had moderate amounts of amphophilic cytoplasm, which was often finely granular. The nuclei were relatively large and had predominantly finely granular chromatin, with prominent nucleoli in about half of the nuclei. A tumor diathesis was present in three cases. Cytologically, glassy-cell carcinoma is most likely to be confused with large-cell nonkeratinizing carcinoma and with atypical reparative cells. Histologically, it was characterized by cells with moderate amounts of finely granular cytoplasm, well-defined cytoplasmic boundaries, vesicular nuclei and large nucleoli. Although this tumor has an alleged aggressive clinical behavior and lack of response to therapy, two of the patients survived for more than ten years. More cases need to be studied in order to ascertain whether this neoplasm is a variant of cervical carcinoma with a distinct morphology and clinical course or is just a pattern of cervical adenocarcinoma, as has been suggested.