Cytology of Inflammatory and Reactive Changes

摘要

Many inflammatory and reactive breast lesions may clinically and radiologically mimic cancer and be subjected to FNAC to exclude malignancy. Aspirates from lesions discussed in this chapter are variably characterized by the presence of inflammatory cells, which include granulocytes, lymphocytes, histiocytes, and multinucleated giant cells. The cytopathologist has the task of identifying the most probable nature (and if possible the cause) of the inflammatory process and of carefully looking for atypical cells in order to exclude with sufficient accuracy a concomitant neoplasm, since breast cancer and infection may coexist [De-may, 1996]. The inflammatory process might alter epithelial cells present on the smear, which may show evident nucle-oli and nuclear enlargement, thus aspirates from this kind of lesions frequently fall into the "atypical" (C3) or "suspicious" (C4) diagnostic category.