Cytopathology Core

Division Of Basic Sciences - Nci

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Cytopathology provides diagnostic evaluation of cytology specimens that direct patient management and treatment. The Cytopathology Section provides complete diagnostic service in cytopathology for the various clinical protocols at the NIH. We specialize in the application of ancillary techniques (i.e., immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry, and most recently molecular testing) to patient material for the confirmation of morphologic diagnoses, evaluation for protocol entry criteria and collaborative investigations. The Cytopathology Section evaluates cytology specimens from the central nervous system, pleural/peritoneal/pericardial cavities, respiratory tract, genitourinary tract, gynecologic system, fine needle aspiration (FNA) samples of various organs, and other less common cytology specimens. Due to the nature of the specimen material evaluated by our Section, often of our cases require immunocytochemical and/or other ancillary studies. The immunosuppressed nature of our patient population at the NIH dictates that a significant proportion of our cases require special studies for pathologic organisms. The relatively high rate of pathologic findings combined with the diversity of types of exfoliative and FNA specimens provide a broad experience in diagnostic cytopathology for residency and fellowship training. The Cytopathology Section is involved in numerous clinically related research studies, many of which utilize FNA or exfoliative samples with immunocytochemistry and/or molecular techniques to provide ancillary diagnostic information. A partial listing of such studies includes: (1) morphologic and immunocytochemical evaluation of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes samples for possible tumor cell contamination prior to therapy; (2) FNA material for subsequent analysis by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), microarray, and other molecular technologies; (3) evaluation of cell lines by morphology and immunocytochemistry; and (4) application of RNA-based molecular technique to non-gynecologic and FNA cytology samples to enhance diagnosis, prognosis and patient management; (5) morphologic evaluation of breast ductal lavage samples for diagnosis and cell count for the protocol research studies.