Objective: Well-differentiated villoglandular adenocarcinoma (VGA) of the cervix involves papillae lined by different types of epithelial cells that are histologically subclassified into endocervical, endometrioid, or intestinal subtypes. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the definite cytological features of VGA by histological subtype. Study Design: We examined 8 cervical smears from patients confirmed to have pure VGA and classified them into the 3 histological subtypes. Results: The cervical smears were highly cellular and had a relatively clean background. The nuclei had minimal anisonucleosis and fine granular chromatin with almost inconspicuous nucleoli. The characteristic findings of the endocervical type were a palisading arrangement consisting of columnar or spindle-shaped cells with apical or elongated nuclei. Small but clear nucleoli were identified only in the endocervical type. In the endometrioid type, tumor cells consisted of cohesive sheets with smooth edges and very round nuclei. Cytoplasmic vacuolation was never observed in the endometrioid type. The tumor cells in the intestinal type were prominent with abundant cytoplasmic mucin. Conclusions: We demonstrated that the cytological features of this tumor can vary depending on the histological subtype and one should be aware of these features in order to improve diagnostic accuracy.

Keywords:
Villoglandular adenocarcinoma, Uterine cervix, Cytology
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© 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel
2012
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