A morphometric expression of differentiation in fine-needle biopsies of breast cancer

An automated method of particle sizing in fine-needle biopsies of human breast carcinomas is described. The average size of clusters of cells aspirated from breast carcinomas was strongly correlated with cytologic differentiation of the tumors and also with the recurrence rate 3 years after mastectomy so that smaller cluster size was associated with poor differentiation and a poor prognostic outcome. It thus seems possible to express in quantitative terms the degree of differentiation of breast carcinomas.