Cervicovaginal and endometrial smear of ovarial cancer.

Cytologic Study of Ascites and the Endometrium in Ovarian Carcinoma

“…Abbreviations as in Table I. Concerning the relationship between cytologic positivity and clinical stage, Fujimoto et al, 4 Graham et al, 5 Ohno et al 11 and Takashina et al 14 reported that the incidence of cytologic positivity in the endometrium, cervix and vagina does not necessarily increase in accordance with advancing clinical stage. On the contrary, our 15 cases that were positive in both ascitic and endometrial cytology were all classified clinically as advanced lesions, stage III or IV.…”

“…On the contrary, our 15 cases that were positive in both ascitic and endometrial cytology were all classified clinically as advanced lesions, stage III or IV. As for ascitic volume, Fujimoto et al, 4 Ohno et al 11 and Takashina et al 14 reported no significant relationship between ascitic volume and the incidence of positive cytologic results. Ohno et al, 11 however, stated that when ascites was present, the incidence of positive cytology was three times higher than when it was absent.…”

“…4,5,9,11,12 Regarding endometrial cytology, the reported incidence of ovarian cancer cells ranges from 15.8% to 53.1% (15.8%, 4 27.7%, 8 41.9%, 14 53.1% 11 ). Among them, the incidence of 15.8% 4 was based on cases without metastasis to the endometrium.…”

“…The three other analyses 8,11,14 included some cases with metastasis to the endometrium. The incidence of 23.0% (20/87) in our study was comparable to the incidence of 15.8% reported by Fujimoto et al 4 Graham et al 5 found no significant differences between the histologic types of ovarian cancer and the incidence of positive cervicovaginal cytology, whereas Koss et al, 9 Ohno et al 11 and Takashina et al 14 reported that cells from serous carcinoma were detected most frequently in cervicovaginal cytology. In our analysis, limited to cases with positive ascitic cytology, cells from clear cell carcinoma were seen more frequently in endometrial cytology (50.0% = 4/8) than were those of serous carcinoma (18.4% = 7/38).…”

“…1,2,5,9,10,12,13 To our knowledge, however, few reports have recommended endometrial cytologic examination. 8,11,14 We performed a study to elucidate the frequency of positive cytology in ascites and the endometrium using surgically proven cases of ovarian primary cancer without metastasis to the endometrium, cervix or vagina.…”