Cytologic study of salivary gland tumors

Cytologic examination was performed on 22 known oral tumors of glandular origin. Cytologically, the cells of benign pleomorphic adenomas and an adenolymphoma could easily be identified as of benign tumor origin, but cytologic determination of malignancy was difficult in 11 of 14 malignant tumors due to lack of malignant features. A precise and comparative study of the morphologic details of the tumor cells with the histologic findings, however, seemed to suggest a possibility of determining the histologic type even in smear preparations.