Advantages of the Mucopolysaccharide Stains in Differential Diagnosis of Adenocarcinoma Cells in Pleural and Peritoneal Effusions

Abstract

In this report, the authors introduce an advantage of the mucopolysaccharide stains in differential diagnosis of adenocarcinoma cells in pleural and peritoneal effusions. Periodic acid-Shiff (PAS) positive materials are almost always detected in the cytoplasm of adenocarcinoma cells. There is, however, some differences in size, amount and distributions of PAS-positive materials among adenocarcinoma cells originated from different organs. They show reticular or granular pattern in papillary adenocarcinoma and accumulative pattern in tubular and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of the stomach, granular pattern in serous cystadenocarcinoma and diffuse, accumulative or reticular pattern in pseudomucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the ovary, reticular or granular pattern in papillotubular and medullary tubular carcinoma of the breast reticular pattern in adenocarcinoma of the lung, and reticular or granular pattern in adenocarcinoma of the gallbladder, colon and uterine cervix. Alcian blue stain findings are also described.
The authors considered the polysaccharide stains as helpful and useful methods, not only for differentiation of carcinoma cells from other benign cells, but also for detection of a primary lesion and of a histological subtype of adenocarcinoma, in combination with Papanicolaou and Giemsa stains.