Cytologic Studies of Nipple Discharges

Cytologic findings of nipple discharges from 71 histologically confirmed breast cases were analysed in this paper.The papillary clusters composed of over 30 ductal cells were found in the discharges from 18 out of 29 malignant breast cases and from 6 out of 42 benign breast cases. All of six benign cases with the papillary clusters had papilloma.Bloody discharges were found in 15 out of 29 malignant breast cases with discharge and in 5 out of 42 benign breast cases.4 out of 5 benign cases with bloody discharge had papilloma.Bloody discharges with the papillary clusters composed of over 30 ductal cells were observed in 14 out of 29 malignant cases and only from 2 out of 42 benign cases.Marked atypical ductal cells were detected in the discharges from 15 out of 29 malignant breast cases.In the remaining 14 cases, it was available for diagnosis to take care of papillary ductal cell clusters.