ROLE OF FNAC IN DIAGNOSIS OF SOFT TISSUE TUMORS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH HISTOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY

Abstract

Aim: The basic aim of the present work is to study role of FNAC in diagnosis of soft tissue tumors and its correlation with Histopathological study.

Methods: The present study was conducted on 145 patients of soft tissue tumors, duration of 35 months in the department of pathology and microbiology, Medical College. FNAC was done in 145 cases and eight aspirations from patients with suspected hemangiomas and lymphangiomas were unsatisfactory for evaluation and these were excluded from the study.

Results: Among 145 cases, 13 cases were excluded from the study. Diagnosis by FNAC was done in 132 cases. In benign tumours maximum number of cases (28) was in the age group of 20-29 years, followed by 26 cases in 10-19 years. Among them largest number of samples 41 (31.1%) samples were categorized to be lipomas followed by spindle cell carcinomas in 39 (29.5%) cases, myxoid in 28 (21.2%) cases, pleomorphic in 5 (3.8%), round cell in 5 (3.8%) and polygonal in 1 (0.7) case. Maximum number of benign cases of tumour were seen in trunk and peritoneum 40 (36.4%) followed by upper 38 (34.5%) and lower 22 (20%) extremities and head and neck 10 (9.5%). Most common malignant tumours were noticed in lower extremities 10 (45.1%) followed by trunk 9 (40.9%). Conclusion: FNAC is an excellent diagnostic modality in the early diagnosis of soft tissue tumors. It is highly sensitive in detecting benign soft tissue tumors and highly specific for malignant soft issue tumors. Cytological categorization of sarcomas especially high-grade tumors like round cell and pleomorphic sarcomas will definitely help in early formulation of effective management protocol. Exact subtyping and grading of sarcomas by FNAC is possible in most of the cases. However, scope of soft tissue evaluation on cytology can be increased with more studies dealing with application of various ancillary techniques like IHC and cytogenetics.

Keywords: FNAC, Soft tissue tumors, STTs, Histopathology study, Musculoskeletal system, Lymphangiomas