Cytology of primary and metastatic uterine sarcomas.

The cytologic features of primary and metastatic uterine sarcomas, as seen in both gynecologic and nongynecologic smears from a series of 58 patients with positive cytologic findings, are presented and discussed. Cytologic examination plays a role in tumor typing but not in early diagnosis of uterine sarcomas since these neoplasms almost exclusively originate submucosally and infrequently shed cells prior to attaining considerable size. Cytomorphology of neoplastic cells varied greatly according to the type of tumor and ranged from small, uniform cells in tight, cohesive clusters to bizarre, pleomorphic spindle-shaped cells with long, ill-defined cytoplasmic processes. Distant metastases occurred within an average of 7 months after tissue diagnosis, and the average survival time was 21 months.