Clinical significance of atypical glandular cells on Pap smear

Shin, Eun Kyoung; Kim, Mi Kyoung; Han, You Jung; Lee, Soo Yoon; Ju, Woong; Kim, Seung Cheol

Abstract

OBJECTIVE
We determine the rate of an atypical glandular cells (AGC) on cervical cytology and the incidence of clinical significant lesion on subsequent follow up biopsies. In this study, we attempted to assess the clinical significance of a cytologic diagnosis of atypical glandular cells (AGC).
METHODS
A total of 60,174 Pap smears were obtained between January 1st 2000 and December 31th 2005 at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital. Among these smears, 26 patients had a diagnosis of AGC. Follow up was available for 23 patients (88.5%) and these patients had histologic follow up including cervical biopsy, endocervical curettage (ECC), and/or endometrial biopsy (EMB).
RESULTS
Among 23 patients with AGC, eight (34.8%) were found to have a clinically significant malignant lesions on subsequent histologic follow up, including 2 endometrial adenocarcinoma cases, 1 cervical adenosquamous cell carcinoma case, 1 endocervical adenocarcinoma case, 2 vault adenocarcinoma cases, 1 MMMT case and 1 squamous cell carcinoma case. We found the differences in incidence of malignant lesions between premenopausal (23.5%) and postmenopausal (66.8%) patients with marginal significance (p=0.057).
CONCLUSION
The incidence of AGC in Pap smear was 0.04%. The patients with AGC had a substantial risk of having a significant number of squamous or glandular, premalignant or malignant lesions. This study strongly suggests the need for the close follow up of patients with a diagnosis of AGC, especially in postmenopausal women.