Cytological Diagnosis of Yolk Sac Tumor from Ascitic Fluid

Abstract

Presented case is a 24-year-old female bearing in her cervical portion of the uterus an extra-embryonic germ cell tumor which has the ability to produce a-fetoprotein.
The smear before operation could not be obtained because of the previous removal of the impared uterus performed in another hospital. The cytological examina tion on the neoplastic cells in ascitic fluid at recurrence shows the following points. These cells are apt to con gregate in three dimensions and present the positive reaction to PAS staining. Thus, it seems unable to differentiate this disease from adenocarcinoma in morp hological point of view. The charactaristic faint granules within the tumor cells are, however, PAS-positive and diastaseresistant.
In addition, biochemical findings such as elevation of α-petoprotein level in plasma and some other fetal plasma protein level may be considered as factors favoring a yolk sac tumor.