Morphologic analyses of positive peritoneal cytology in endometrial carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the morphologic features of endometrial adenocarcinoma cells in peritoneal fluids (effusions and washings) and macroscopic intraabdominal adenocarcinoma at laparotomy as well as prognosis. STUDY DESIGN: Seventy-one patients with endometrial adenocarcinoma who showed positive peritoneal cytology at laparotomy were clinically divided into three groups: 25 patients with macroscopic neoplastic seeding in the peritoneal cavity (type 1), 38 patients without macroscopic peritoneal metastasis who survived with no evidence of disease (type 2) and 8 patients without macroscopic peritoneal metastasis who later developed recurrence of adenocarcinoma (type 3). Morphologic features of the adenocarcinoma cells in smears of peritoneal fluids were examined. RESULTS: Most of the smears from type 1 patients showed moderate to high cellularity, scalloped edges of cell clusters and isolated adenocarcinoma cells, whereas these features were seldom observed in type 2 patients. Although not all type 3 patients demonstrated these three features, patients in the series whose specimens exhibited none of the three features did not show any peritoneal lesions or have a recurrence of their disease. CONCLUSION: The finding of endometrial adenocarcinoma cells exhibiting high cellularity, scalloped edge of cell clusters and isolated cells in smears of peritoneal fluid is associated with the presence of intraabdominal macroscopic metastatic lesions and could be regarded as a risk factor for intraabdominal recurrence of carcinoma.