Exfoliative Cytopathology of Human Lingual Neoplasm

Objective: The present work is aimed to evaluate the prognostic and diagnostic importance of cytological atypias in exfoliative cytopathology of Human Lingual Neoplasm (HLN).

Methodology: In a hospital-based case-control study, 36 subjects (18 cases of lingual neoplasm and 18 control individuals) were included. Exfoliated scrape cytosmears were collected from the affected lingual site over the pre-coded cleaned microslides. Two slides were prepared from each case. Samples were immediately fixed in 1:3 aceto-alcohol fixatives. One set of the fixed samples was stained with Papanicolaou’s stain and the other set was counterstained with Giemsa’s stain. Stained slides were observed under Hunds-500 light microscope. 1000 cells were screened and suitable cytological atypias were scored. Photomicrographs were taken out as the supporting evidence. Software package PAST^®, Version 2.17 was used for statistical analysis.

Result: Lateral borders (61.1%), of the tongue were found to be the most common sites of lingual carcinogenesis. Among the well observed cytological pleomorphism, occurrence of a number of moderately differentiated cytological atypias (KSC, KTC, KSC-A, KFC and KRC) in the cytosmears of premalignant cases indicates that the lesions were unexpectedly in an advanced stage. Furthermore, MNC, KSC and KTC are found to be the modal cytological atypias in the HLNs and so, these may be considered as the predictable potential biomarkers of lingual carcinoma.

Conclusion: Occurrence of multi-modal diagnostic cytological atypias such as MNC, KSC and KTC in the exfoliated cytosmears has a practical role in prognosis and diagnosis of HLNs. Therefore, exfoliative cytopathology will be helpful to defeat the dragon of diagnostic dilemma in HLNs in general and to detect the lingual carcinoma at an early hand in particular.

Author(s): Mohanta A, Mohanty PK

Abstract | Full-Text | PDF

Share This Article