Flow cytometry in cytopathology. Overview and perspectives.

The future applications of flow cytometry (FCM) are briefly discussed. Whereas the early goals of its clinical applications were cancer diagnosis and classification, it has now become apparent that FCM can more successfully provide information on a variety of cell constituents of crucial importance in the evaluation of tumor prognosis and treatment sensitivity. It is suggested that (1) the data being provided by FCM will probably lead to a more clinically relevant classification of tumors, based more on the biochemical/molecular markers of individual cells and an assessment of tumor heterogeneity and less on classical cell morphology and tumor progression, and (2) FCM seems likely to become established as a routine methodology in cytopathology.