Clinicopathologic importance of atypical glandular cells in cervico-vaginal cytology

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the histopathologic outcomes of patients with atypical glandular cells (AGC) in cervicovaginal cytology examinations.

Material and Methods: Patients with AGC in cervicovaginal cytology were included in this study between March 2011 and March 2018 and patient data were collected retrospectively among all cytology results. AGC classification of cervicovaginal cytology were based on the Bethesda 2001 classification system.

Results: The total prevalence of cervical epithelial cell abnormality and AGC were found as 9.2% and 0.2%, respectively, in the study cohort. AGC-favor neoplasia (AGC-FN) was the subgroup of AGC, with the highest malignancy rate with 62.5% (p=0.06). The incidence of malignancy in the postmenopausal group (33.3%) was detected higher than in the premenopausal group (8.3%) (p=0.07).

Conclusion: The probability of malignancy in AGC-FN cytology is more commonly associated with malignancy in the postmenopausal group. Therefore, histopathologic examination is strongly recommended in these patients with AGC smears because of the high risk for malignancy in this group.