Cytological grading, apoptosis, and Bcl-2 protein expression in breast cancer.

A prospective study was conducted on 27 cases of infiltrating duct carcinoma of breast diagnosed by fine-needle aspirate cytology (FNAC), subjected to mastectomy following the FNA diagnosis. Cytological grading, Bcl-2 score, and quantification of apoptotic cell count were done on FNA material. Next, the carcinomas were graded on the corresponding histopathological sections. The overall concordance between cytological and histological gradings was 77.7%, with maximum concordance in Grade I tumors and minimum in Grade II. The mean apoptotic rates were 0.59 +/- 0.722, 2.11 +/- 0.707, and 2.95 +/- 0.854 in Grades I, II, and III, respectively. Similarly Bcl-2 scores were 1.36 +/- 0.82, 0.22 +/- 0.13, and 0.14 +/- 0.116, in Grades I, II, and III lesions, respectively. When the cytological grade was correlated with histological grade alone, and subsequently along with Bcl-2 scores and apoptotic rates, there was a significant improvement from 0.662-0.713 (P value, 0.001). Copyright 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.