Nuclear diameters of breast cancer cells in tissue sections.

Nuclear diameters of breast cancer cells were measured on tissue sections in 100 cases. Processing the tissues for histology caused significant shrinkage and distortion of structures. Comparison between nuclear diameters measured on cytologic specimens and those measured on tissue sections must take into account a correction factor of 1.55 x. "Small nuclei only" were not found; in 19% of the tumors a "small nuclear type predominance" was evident. Twelve percent of the cases fell into the category of "more than 30% large nuclei" according to the cytologic criteria corrected for tissue sections. The importance of the correction factor is emphasized.