Combination of cytology, fluorescence in situ hybridization for @entity2007 , and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction for XXXX mammaglobin/ @entity71021 expression improves diagnosis of malignant effusions.

@entity5 @entity1 @entity2007 @entity71021
PURPOSE: The identification of malignant cells in effusions by conventional cytology is hampered by its limited sensitivity. The aim of this study was to improve @entity5 cell detection in effusions by molecular approaches. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 157 effusions from @entity1 with @entity5 and 72 effusions from @entity1 without a history or evidence of @entity5 were included in this study. All effusion specimens were evaluated in parallel by cytology, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for @entity2007 , and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for expression of @entity1 mammaglobin (hMAM) and @entity71021 (hMAM-B). RESULTS: In effusions from @entity1 with @entity5 , the sensitivities of @entity5 cell detection by cytology, FISH, and hMAM and hMAM-B detection were 46.2%, 53.3%, 36.4%, and 57.7%, respectively. The corresponding specificities were 94.4%, 97.0%, 87.1%, and 88.6%. Notably, a high percentage of effusions containing malignant cells were in fact transudates, indicating the necessity for molecular diagnostic work-up of transudates collected from @entity1 with @entity5 . Dependent on the @entity5 type, the use of appropriate marker combinations improved @entity5 cell detection in effusions significantly. By combining all four diagnostic tests, a positive test result indicating the presence of @entity5 was achieved in 81.1%, with a fairly good specificity of 70.1%. CONCLUSION: Molecular techniques are definitely useful to detect @entity5 in cytologically negative effusions. Tumor cell detection in effusions can be significantly improved by FISH and PCR techniques applying appropriate molecular markers. This finding should help to improve @entity5 staging, prognostic assessment, and treatment monitoring.
