Cytodiagnosis of the Mammary and Extramammary Paget's Diseases

With Special Reference to Differen tiation from Malignant Melanoma

Abstract

In the present paper, the cytodiagnostic findings of 9patients, having 7 mammary and 2 extramammary Pagetdiseases each, are discussed with emphasis on their cytologic features and mechanism of melanin pigmentationinto the cytoplasma of cancer cells. In the smear specimens collected by scraping or needle-aspiration, largecancer cell clusters occasionally mixed with benign epidermal cells, anisonucleosis, large typical Paget's cells withwide cytoplasma, melanin-pigmentation into the cytoplasma and occasionally presence of melanocytes werecharacteristic for the cytodiagnostic features of the presentdiseases.
It is proposed that melanin pigmentation into the cytoplasma of the cancer cells is presumably induced through thesame mechanism as that of epidermal cells reported.