1987 Volume 26 Issue 1 Pages 116-123
We present the case of a 46-year-old woman with primary malignant lymphoma of the uterine cervix, clinical stage IVA in the Ann Arbor classification, which was incidentally detected by cytodiagnosis in mass screening for cervical cancer and definitely diagnosed by the findings at exploratory laparotomy and autopsy.
This case was classified as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, diffuse and mediumsized cell type, in the ISG (Lymphoma Study Group of Japan) classification. The Papanicolaou smear from the mass screening showed large numbers of scattered tumor cells. Small clusters of cells were also demonstrated occasionally. The background was almost clean, but contained a small amount of cellular debris. Individual tumor cells were moderately large in size and appeared round to oval in shape with a sparse cytoplasm. The nuclei, with a moderate degree of hyperchromasia and delicate chromatin, appeared oval in shape. Some of them seemed to be so-called cleaved nuclei, having prominent complex nuclear membrane infoldings and dentations. They also had one to two prominent irregular shaped nucleoli. Mitotic figures and mirror-image nuclei, which are said to be one of the characteristics of Hodgkin's disease, were also observed.
