Cytological evaluation of enlarged lymph nodes in metastatic disease: A hospital-based assessment

Background: Lymphadenopathy is a heterogeneous entity with many underlying causes, ranging from self-limiting benign disease to severe neoplastic proliferations. Fine-needle aspiration is a cost-effective and reliable tool for initial investigation of enlarged lymph nodes. Materials and Methods: A study was conducted on 326 patients with metastatic disease in order to evaluate the efficacy of cytology in diagnosing malignancies metastatizing to the lymph node and predicting their primary origin as well as to find the relative frequency of different malignancies. The findings were also correlated with histopathology. Results: Cervical lymph nodes were the most frequently involved group, followed by axillary, supraclavicular, and inguinal lymph nodes. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and adenocarcinoma were the most common cytological diagnosis. Among the cases with known primary tumors, head and neck was the most common site followed by breast carcinoma. Most common lymph node group to be aspirated in cases with unknown primary was cervical lymph node, and SCC was most frequently diagnosed cases. Sensitivity and positive predictive value of cytological diagnosis were calculated to be 100% and 93.1%, respectively. Conclusion: Fine-needle aspiration cytology has a very high sensitivity and positive predictive value and hence, a presumptive diagnosis can be made along with the detection of the primary site in case of metastatic disease.