COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF CYTOLOGICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL GRADING IN INVASIVE DUCTAL CARCINOMA BREAST: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Objectives: Carcinoma breast is most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) and histopathology play very important role in diagnosing breast cancer. Main objective of this study is to compare the cytological and histopathological grading in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast. Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Pathology, Government Medical College, Patiala. Fifty patients with palpable breast lump were selected. The age of whom varied from 30 to 86 years. FNAC was done, smears were prepared and stained with Romanowsky and Papanicolaou stains. Cytological grading was done according to Robinson’s method. After surgery, the results were compared with histological grading according to Nottingham’s Modification of Bloom–Richardson method. Results: On cytological grading of 50 cases, 25 (50%) cases were graded as Grade II, 21 (42%) as Grade I, and 4 (8%) as Grade III. Whereas on histological grading, Grades I, II and III tumors were 17 (34%), 22 (44%), and 11 (22%), respectively. Overall concordance of cytological grading with histological grading was 76% with a kappa value of 0.605 and p<0.001. Conclusion: The study showed that the cytological grade correlates well with the histological grade. Cytological grade can be of great value in evaluating the aggressiveness of tumor, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and can be used as a prognostic factor for better management of patients.