The PapSpin: a reasonable alternative to other, more expensive liquid-based Papanicolaou tests.

Background: This study was designed to optimize a liquid-based Papanicolaou (Pap) test by using common cytopathology laboratory equipment and resulted in an inexpensive test that was equivalent at least diagnostically to the conventional Papanicolaou (Pap) smear.

Methods: Adult women (n = 482) were consented, enrolled, and included in this Institutional Review Board-approved study. After conventional Pap smear slides were obtained, clinicians placed the collection device with residual cells from the uterine cervix in a preservative fluid.

Fatty acid synthase inhibitors are chemopreventive for mammary cancer in neu-N transgenic mice.

High levels of fatty acid synthase (FAS) have been found in cancer precursor lesions of the colon, stomach, esophagus, oral cavity, prostate, and breast. Inhibition of FAS with C75 has led to a significant antitumor effect in both human breast and prostate cancer xenografts. Recently, HER2/neu, which has also been identified in preneoplastic breast lesions, has been shown to regulate FAS expression through the PI3K/Akt signal transduction pathway rendering them susceptible to FAS inhibition.

Methylation profiling of benign and malignant breast lesions and its application to cytopathology.

Methylation of tumor suppressor genes has been implicated in breast cancer development. However, methylation profiles of different breast lesions, subtypes of carcinoma in particular, have not been examined in detail. In this study, we use methylation-specific PCR (MSP) to generate gene methylation profiles of different breast lesions and to test the clinical utility of such profiles.

Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance--rule out high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion: cytopathologic characteristics and clinical correlates.

The significance and clinical management of atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) on cervical cytologic smears has been an area of much controversy. This study compiled a list of criteria useful in identifying the subset of cases that would be categorized as atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance- rule out high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (ASC-H) in the new Bethesda System terminology, which eventuate in a diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). The cytopathology files at Johns Hopkins Hospital were searched for ASC-H cases from the 3-yr period 1996-1998, which had definitive clinicopathologic follow-up (colposcopy and cervical biopsies).

Micropapillary serous carcinoma of the ovary: cytomorphologic characteristics in peritoneal/pelvic washings.

Background: Micropapillary serous carcinoma (MPSC), a recently described entity, is an ovarian tumor with a distinctive histologic architecture that lacks a destructive infiltrative growth pattern and behaves like a low-grade neoplasm. The purpose of this study was to determine if specific cytomorphologic features were associated with this tumor in peritoneal/ pelvic washings.

Methods: Eight cases of MPSC were retrieved from the cytopathology files at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.