Role of fine needle aspiration cytology and adjunctive techniques in the diagnosis of musculoskeletal tumors: An institutional experience

The role of fine needle aspiration cytology in diagnosing recurrent and metastatic sarcomas has been well dealt with, however; its utility in rendering a primary diagnosis of sarcoma still remains a topic of debate. The present study evaluates the scope of FNAC along with adjunctive techniques including cell blocking and immunocytochemistry in diagnosing and subtyping of soft tissue tumors. A total of 71 patients presented with musculoskeletal lesions underwent fine needle aspiration. Cell blocks were contributory in exact subtyping in 41/56 (73.2%) cases. Round cell tumors were the most easily subtyped tumors with 19/20(95%) subtyped accurately. Similarly, 8/17(47.1%) of pleomorphic tumors, 9/19(47.3%) of spindle cell tumors, 1/1(100%) of myxoid tumors, 0/1(0%) epithelioid tumors, 0/2(0%) of lipomatous tumors, 1/2(50%) of mixed tumors and 3/9(33.3%) of other tumors could be accurately subtyped using ancillary techniques. Histopathological correlation was available in 51 cases.