A morphologic analysis of the cells of ductal carcinoma of the breast and of adenocarcinoma of the ovary in pleural and abdominal effusions.

The cells in serous effusions from 14 cases of histologically proven ductal adenocarcinoma of the breast and from an equal number of proven adenocarcinomas of the ovary were morphologically analyzed, with quantitative values assigned to various cell parameters. The resulting data were then subjected to stepwise discriminant analysis. The presence of coarse chromatin proved to be the most significant discriminating factor, resulting in a correct classification of 100% of the mammary carcinomas (14 of 14) and 71.4% (10 of 14) of the ovarian carcinomas, for an overall rate of 85.7% correct classifications. When combined with other cell parameters, such as the presence of polygonal cells, multiple nucleoli and an isolated cell arrangement, the accuracy rate increased to 92.9% correct classifications. Ovarian carcinoma was more likely to have coarse chromatin and to occur in three-dimensional cell groups, in contrast to mammary carcinoma, which tended to have fine chromatin and more polygonal cell shapes and to occur more commonly in syncytial cell groups and as isolated cells.