Usefulness of touch Imprint Cytology in Cancer diagnosis: A study of 119 cases
Badami Harnish, Vala Nidhi, Neena Doshi, S G Highway · 2014
Touch imprint cytology is a valuable tool in surgical Oncology. It has been used in Neuropathology for many years and more recently it has been receiving increased attention in other areas of Pathology, like evaluation of sentinel lymph node biopsy, breast cancer, tumor margins, autopsy etc. As compared to Frozen Section, it is reliable and cost effective method, provides excellent cellular details. Examination of cytology specimens obtained by touch preparation of the fresh specimen can add a great deal of information to the frozen sections, and sometimes obviates the need for them altogether. Ability of TIC to identify malignancy with specific subtype is 86.31%. The positive predictive value was 100% and negative predictive value was 77% for the test. The simplicity, speed and cost effectiveness along with its ability to maximize cell recovery from very small tissue piece makes Touch Imprint Cytology a valuable resource for virtually every aspect of experimental and diagnostic medicine. TIC does have major limitations in differentiating invasive carcinoma from in-situ counterpart. Hence emphasizing the need of FS or HP examinations in cases where invasion is the sole criteria to define carcinoma.