Abstract
Objective : To determine the clinical significance of atypical glandular cells (AGC), we evaluated the results of histologic examination in patients who showed AGC on cytology screening for uterine cancer.
Study Design : A retrospective study was conducted of cases with AGC detected on conventional Pap smears between April 2011 and March 2016. The results revealed correlations between the histologic diagnoses and cytologic diagnoses when the AGC-positive cases were divided into the following 5 subcategories : AGC of endocervical origin, favor neoplasm (EC, FN) ; AGC of endcervical origin, not otherwise specified (EC, NOS) ; AGC of endometrial origin, NOS (EM, NOS) ; AGC-FN ; AGC-NOS.
Results : Of the 232 patients with AGC, 58 cases (25.0%) were detected to have precancerous and malignant lesions. Among the 111 patients with EC, FN or EC, NOS, there were 3 patients with CIN3, 1 with invasive squamous cell carcinoma, 10 with AIS and 7 with invasive cervical adenocarcinoma. Among the 103 patients with EM, NOS, 1 patient had atypical endometrial hyperplasia, 23 had endometrial carcinoma and 2 had ovarian carcinoma. Among the 34 patients with EC, FN and AGC-FN, 17 had precancerous or malignant lesions.
Conclusion : Detection of AGC could be predictive of precancerous or malignant lesions. AGC subcategorization is important for adequate management of the patients. Patients with EC should be followed up with endocervical sampling, and patients with EM should be followed up with endometrial sampling.
