Fine-needle aspiration biopsy of pediatric neoplasms: correlation between electron microscopy and immunocytochemistry in diagnosis and classification.

A series of fine-needle aspiration biopsies performed in 635 children were reviewed. The diagnoses rendered in these patients included malignant lymphoma in 139 (21.9%); Hodgkin's disease, 25 (3.9%); neuroblastoma, 58 (9.1%); Wilms' Tumor, 37 (5.8%); Ewing's sarcoma, 32 (5.0%); rhabdomyosarcoma, 25 (3.9%); retinoblastoma, 22 (3.5%); leukemia infiltrate, 33 (5.2%); and miscellaneous tumors, 52 (8.2%). In 171 patients (26.9%), the biopsy was nondiagnostic. The cytomorphological characteristics of these lesions are briefly described and illustrated. Salient morphological features are further correlated with histological and ultrastructural appearances. Immunocytochemical patterns of these tumors are also discussed briefly.