Although the exfoliative cytology is widely accepted as a diagnostic tool for vaginal, sputum and body fluid smears, it's application on dermatologic field is still extremely limited.
Here, we present twelve cases of the dermatologic diseases, in which we could make exact diagnosis by cytologic procedures on the smears from the skin surface lesions. These cases include six squamous cell carcinomas, one basal cell epithelioma, one extramammary Paget's disease, one malignant melanoma, and one adenocarcinoma of sebaceous gland. The diagnosis of these cases were confirmed later by histologic examination on the biopsy specimen.
Our results strongly suggest that the cytologic approaches for dermatologic malignancy will be a useful diagnostic tool, especially in those of the ulcerated skin lesion.
