Proceedings of the American Society of Cytopathology Companion Session at the 2019 United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Annual Meeting, Part 2: Effusion cytology with focus on Theranostics and Diagnosis of Malignant Mesothelioma

Publication date: Available online 8 August 2019Source: Journal of the American Society of CytopathologyAuthor(s): Momin T. Siddiqui, Fernando Schmitt, Andrew ChurgAbstractWe live in the “era” of minimally invasive procedures, molecular testing and personalized care. Effusions have a high sensitivity and often yield diagnostic cytological material. This companion session presented by the American Society of Cytopathology at the 2019 USCAP meeting outlined our current and future projected practices in characterizing, handling and diagnosing serous cavity fluids, and in this second part, the role of theranostics and diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma, as was discussed at the meeting is highlighted. In theranostics, there is a vast amount of literature published regarding EGFR and related molecules. There are some publications regarding HER2 IHC and FISH as well. This follows the most active areas of research in targeted therapy. Furthermore, during this session malignant mesothelioma was extensively discussed. The cytologic diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma in effusion specimens is controversial, however, a definitive diagnosis can be made in many cases. Radiologic information should be sought, since the radiologist can often make a definite or very likely diagnosis of malignancy. Microscopically high cellularity and/or numerous balls of cells or papillary groups favors a mesothelioma. It is important to exclude metastatic carcinoma with a broad spectrum carcinoma marker...
Source: Journal of the American Society of Cytopathology - Category: Cytology Source Type: research