Abstract

Context: Lymph nodes are common sites for primaries as well for different metastatic cancers. Thus clinical recognition and urgent diagnosis of palpable lymphadenopathy is of paramount importance specially to differentiate between inflammatory lesions or metastatic or primary neoplastic tumor. Objectives: Role of FNAC in Primary and Secondary Lymphnode Neoplasm among Patients attended at Tertiary Teaching Health Care Centre, Mumbai. Methods: A retro­prospective study was carried out on the patients admitted in medical and surgical ward and from OPD with clinically diagnosed lymphadenopathy, in the department of Pathology of LTMMC & GH, Sion, Mumbai, during the period of January 2007 to August 2011. Results: In lymphoma group, Non­ Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was commonest (66.67%) followed by Hodgkin’s lymphoma (33.33%). In malignant lymphoma group the diagnostic accuracy was 85.71%. In metastatic group, the commonest metastatic lesion observed was squamous cell carcinoma (65.39%) followed by undifferentiated epithelial malignancy (21.03%), and infiltrating ductal carcinoma of breast in (6.47%). Conclusion: Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology is logical extension of the more formalized biopsy procedure, lending itself to saving of time and cost and is convenient for both patients and physician in the management and follow up of malignant lymphadenopathies. FNAC helps in defining the tumor type, while the clinical history and investigations help in identifying the tumor site.

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