Role of FNAC in the diagnosis of lymph node malignancies - An institutional experience

Abstract

Lymphadenopathy is a sign of underlying infection, primary or metastatic malignancy. Fine-needle aspiration is a simple and reliable tool for its initial investigation. To analyse the cytomorphological features of malignant lymph node lesions and to determine the frequency of different lymph node malignancies. It was an observational, retrospective study conducted in the cytology section of Department of Pathology, Govt. Medical College, Jammu. It included lymph node aspirates that were reported as malignant. May-Grunwald-Giemsa (MGG) and Papanicolaou (PAP) stained smears were examined under light microscope and the cytological features were studied. A total of 97 malignant lymph node aspirates were included in this study. Metastatic malignancy accounted for maximum number of cases (78, 80.4%) followed by lymphoma (19, 19.6%). Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common metastatic malignancy and also the most frequently diagnosed malignant lesion in our study (42, 43.3%). Cervical lymph nodes were the most commonly aspirated lymph nodes.FNAC of lymph nodes is a simple and valuable tool in the diagnosis of lymph node malignancies.