Fine needle aspiration of breast carcinoma: a preliminary cytoprognostic study.

A cytologic grading method for fine needle aspiration smears was applied to 178 histologically confirmed breast carcinomas. Grade I defined a well-differentiated carcinoma, grade II a carcinoma with pleomorphic tumor cells and grade II an anaplastic carcinoma. The cell-to-cell relationship (topography) and the cytologic criteria contributed to the grading. Special attention was paid to grade III tumors, which have an unfavorable prognosis. The correlation of grading with the clinical course of the disease was evaluated after a 12-month followup. In 4% of the patients classified as having grade I disease, 8.9% as having grade II and 66% as having grade III, local recurrence of disease, metastasis or death was observed within one year. The contribution of cytologic grading to the prognosis of breast cancers is discussed.